104 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1920. 



oats, wheat and buckwheat. The results reported here are those 

 obtained from what from the first have been regarded as pre- 

 liminary studies, but it is believed that they are of sufficient sig- 

 nificance to be of value as a matter of record at this time. 



These preliminary experiments possess certain limitations, 

 some of which will be mentioned. While, as will be seen, the 

 results with potatoes and beans were quite striking and uniform, 

 a larger number of pots for each individual treatment would 

 have been better. The relatively small number of pots used 

 was partly due to the limitations imposed by lack of greenhouse 

 space, but more particularly in the case of potatoes it was due 

 to the fact that at the time the work was begun, October 3, it 

 was difficult to secure a sufficient amount of satisfactory seed 

 potatoes in condition for immediate germination. While the 

 results show that fertilizers containing borax produced varying 

 amounts of injury to potatoes and that such injury did not oc- 

 cur on plants in pots containing borax-free fertilizer or in pots 

 containing no fertilizer, the)* do not show conclusively that 

 borax is the sole and only factor involved. They furnish very 

 strong presumptive evidence that this is the case. There are 

 also certain objections that might be raised to the method used 

 in applying water to the pots. 



Plans were made whereby it was intended to repeat and 

 amplify these experiments to meet the objections enumerated, 

 as far as the limitations of greenhouse space would permit. It 

 was then found that the Directors of the other Agricultural 

 Experiment Stations in New England, New York and New 

 Jersey were interested in joining in conducting a cooperative 

 greenhouse experiment on a relatively large scale in which the 

 effects of the presence of different amounts of borax in fertili- 

 zers when used on potatoes, corn and beans would be determined. 

 Arrangements were perfected whereby this work was begun 

 about February 1. the final plans being prepared by the Director 

 of the Maine Station and the writer. To Mr. J. R. Neller of the 

 New Jersey Station, an expert in pot culture, was assigned the 

 responsibility of carrying out the details of these cooperative 

 experiments, which are now in progress in the Vermont Station 

 greenhouses. 



As soon as the plans mentioned above were perfected, work 

 along similar lines was discontinued at Orono. The following 



