Potatoes L389 



has been carrying on cooperative experiments with farmers scat- 

 tered from one end of the state to the other. The farmer does the 

 work according to his own method, the station provides for proper 

 check rows, and assists in measuring the areas and weighing the 

 product. The grower keeps accurate account of all expenses and 

 profit or loss from the spraying. During the seven years the 

 average cost of spraying an acre has run from $4.15 to $5.90. 

 The increased yield per acre has been from 18.5 bushels to 62.2 

 bushels and the net profit per acre from $8.53 to $24.86. This is 

 the average highest and lowest return from all the experiments in 

 different years. The greatest gain, of course, has been in years 

 when blight was severe, the smallest being in 1908, when there 

 was scarcely any blight. Doubtless, much of the gain that year 

 was due to decreased damage from flea beetles because of bordeaux 

 applications. The average increase in yield per acre for the entire 

 period was 44.1 bushels, with an average net profit of $16.77 for 

 the seven years. At Geneva the gain per acre dne to spraying 

 every two weeks was 97.5 bushels; at Hiverhead 45.7 bushels. 

 The gain due to spraying three times at Geneva was 69 bushels ; at 

 Riverhead 25 bushels. 



Few appreciate the fact that the potato makes its most rapid 

 growth in the last two weeks of its life. If the green leaf, then, is 

 impaired or destroyed before the plant has lived out its natural 

 life, the yield may be so decreased as to do away with the profit 

 altogether, or the increase by preserving it by spraying, after pay- 

 ing the expense, is clear gain. 



RECAPITULATION 



To briefly summarize and emphasize the foregoing it is apparent : 



1. That humns well mixed with the soil, and frequent surface 

 stirrings of the same, will materially help to store up and retain 

 moisture or a water supply against the period of greatest need, 

 when the tubers are forming and the tops are evaporating water 

 most rapidly. 



2. That deep plowing and planting and non-hilling in ordi- 

 nary dry seasons will all tend to the conservation of moisture. 



