BULLETIN 236. 



FIELD EXPERIMENTS. 

 Reported by Chas D. Woods. 



The work of investigation at the two experimental farms 

 (Aroostook Farm, Presque Isle, and Highmoor Farm, Mon- 

 mouth) is planned by the Director, the Biologists, the Plant 

 Pathologist and the Entomologist. The results of the more 

 scientific phases of the studies, are reported from time to time 

 in the bulletins but it always happens that there are results 

 obtained that lie somewhat outside of the lines of work of any 

 of the Station specialists. Some of the more popular and prac- 

 tical results are here reported. The carrying out of these 

 experiments and the taking of the requisite notes devolved upon 

 different members of the Staff. In general the field work was 

 carried out under the direction of the farm superintendents. 



Drawing Conclusions from Field Experiments. 



Field experiments at the best are somewhat uncertain because 

 there are so many factors of soil, temperature, rainfall, and 

 the like, that affect the results which are beyond the control of 

 the experimenter. For this reason it is always planned at this 

 Station to carry the same experiment under as nearly as pos- 

 sible the same conditions through a series of years before 

 attempting to draw any very definite conclusions. The results 

 here reported should be considered more in the light of reports 

 of progress than of completed studies. It may happen that 

 the teaching that a single year's results seem to warrant may 

 be reversed by the repetition of the experiment in other years 

 under different climatic or other conditions. This is illustrated 

 in the paper on the Effect of Spraying Iron Sulphate on Potato 

 Tops given on page 5 1 . 



Commercial Varieties of Oats at Highmoor Farm in 1914.^ 



The Station has been conducting a test of commercial varie- 

 ties of oats at Highmoor Farm since 1910. The detailed results 



