April 2 
286 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SPRAYING AND FERTILIZING 
POTATOES. 
The interest and replies produced by 
my previous article on potato spraying 
is good evidence that the practice has 
not justified the glowing statements 
made by some of its champions. It must 
not be considered, however, to have no 
value, for there are many good farmers 
who arc convinced that it is of great 
benefit. What 1 want to see is a frank 
recognition of Ihe fact that it does not 
always prevent blight even when care¬ 
fully and thoroughly done, and what is 
more important, a determined effort by 
a great many practical growers in all 
sections of the country to settle the 
question whether it protects sufficiently 
to warrant the cost (it costs me over $5 
an acre for material and labor); and, if 
it is found that tbe present method of 
spraying with Bordeaux does not pay, is 
there any other that will? 
Spraying has apparently not paid me 
so far, but I propose to continue to 
spray. I intend to take each year a fair¬ 
ly large field, say 10 acres, planted with 
one variety of potatoes, and to divide 
this into sections, one part to be spray¬ 
ed once or twice, another section very 
thoroughly, and another to be left with¬ 
out spraying. A few years ought to pro¬ 
duce definite results for this section and 
our conditions, and if the same sort of 
work could be carried on over the entire 
country the question ought to be decided 
positively. The blight is so erratic in 
its behavior and spreads so irregularly, 
attacking or sparing portions of a field, 
that we are justified in questioning the 
value of an experiment confined to a 
small plot. 
I should be very sorry to be considered 
an opponent or hostile critic of the ex¬ 
periment stations, for I believe them to 
be of immense value to the farmer. To 
take our own Rhode Island Station as 
an example, the researches and experi¬ 
ments on the liming of acid soils are 
worth more to this little State alone 
than the entire cost of the Station. 
Great as is the value of the stations they 
might be much more valuable if the 
farmer would enter into closer relation 
with them. Personally, I am continual¬ 
ly under obligations to them, not only 
the one in this State, but to others all 
over the Union; and I always receive the 
greatest courtesy and whatever assist¬ 
ance they can give me. We farmers 
have every reason to uphold the experi¬ 
ment stations and no reason to find fault 
with them because a ! l their experiments 
do not fit smoothly into our particular 
farm practice. 
To get back to the potatoes. Mr. 
Garrahan brings up an important ques¬ 
tion when he suggests that my blight 
injury was really due to impure Paris- 
green. On the field that blighted first 
and worst I used only arsenate of lead, 
on the other field where blight appeared 
three weeks or so lat n r and where the 
growth and crop were much better I 
used arsenate of lead for the first three 
sprayings and Paris-green for the later 
ones. Moreover, when I use Paris-green 
or the arsenate of soda and lime I al¬ 
ways add a couple of pounds extra of 
lime to each barrel of spray. I noticed 
no injury that looked like what I have 
seen as the result of free arsenic. Mr. 
Garrahan also suggests that I may have 
used too much nitrogen in the fertilizer 
and his comments on such overuse I can 
largely indorse. I used only a chemical 
fertilizer, home mixed, containing four 
per cent nitrogen, eight per cent potash 
and 10 per cent phosphoric acid and ap¬ 
plied 1,000 pounds per acre. One-third 
of the nitrogen was derived from nitrate 
of soda and two-thirds from dried blood 
and ground bone, so there was probably 
no oversupply of nitrogen. The tops cer¬ 
tainly showed none, for on the field first 
attacked the tops had not reached a foot 
in height when growth was checked, al¬ 
though they looked green and thrifty up 
to that time. The variety was Karly 
Norther, which is a moderate top 
maker. On the adjoining field planted 
with Early Norther and Prize the 
blight began three weeks later; the tops 
made a normal growth, and the crop 
was nearly double that of No. 1 field. It 
will be noticed that my fertilizer com¬ 
position is not like those most common¬ 
ly used and recommended, but it suits 
the needs of my soil. Each year I run 
a series of trial rows for the sake of 
testing my fertilizer requirements. 
Last year’s test plot was in the mid¬ 
dle of the field which bad the year be¬ 
fore been in corn (and a very poor crop), 
and before that it was an old pasture 
that had not been broken up for half a 
century. The soil is a sandy loam with 
a fair admixture of clay, about six inches 
deep, and a sandy clay subsoil. I plant 
the test rows four feet apart and run 
them clear across the field so as to get 
as fair a sample of the whole field as 
possible, and this I consider very im¬ 
portant, for as every farmer knows, un¬ 
known and invisible differences in the 
soil will make a great difference in the 
yield within very short distances. For 
example, last year I measured the yields 
on some portions of some rows on which 
the crop was at the rate of over 500 
bushels per acre, whereas the crop for 
the whole field was 160 bushels per acre 
The test rows are planted and treated 
in every way like the surrounding crop 
I aim to apply enough of the fertilizing 
element, being tested to supply all pos¬ 
sible demands for that element. The 
nitrogen was applied at the rate of 450 
pounds of dried blood and 250 pounds 
of nitrate of soda. The potash as mu¬ 
riate, using 450 pounds, and the phos¬ 
phorus as 16 per cent acid phosphate, 
using 1,800 pounds. On the rows where 
two elements were applied the same 
amount was used of each, i. e., 450 
pounds of muriate of potash and 1,800 
pounds of acid phosphate. The fertilizer 
was all applied at ihe same time, using 
a fertilizer distributor which spread it 
evenly over the row about 18 inches wide 
within a week after planting. The 
weeder was run ever the rows to mix 
the fertilizers with the soil, and by this 
method I planned to prevent injury to 
the seed or young plant by close con¬ 
tact with the large application and yet 
have the fertilizer where the plant roots 
could reach it easily. There was a very 
good stand and the results were as fol¬ 
lows: 
Row 1, no fertilizer, poor yellow growth, 
27 bushels, mostly small; 2, nitrogen, 
fine deep green tops, 36 bushels, half 
small, five per cent rot; 3, potash, small 
tops, poor appearance, 40 bushels, half 
small, no rot; 4, phosphoric acid, fine 
tops, good color, 108 bushels, fair and 
smooth, no rot; 5, potash and nitrogen, 
fine growth of dark green tops, 54 bush¬ 
els, half medium, five per cent rot; 6, 
phosphoric acid and nitrogen, large dark 
growth of vine, 144 bushels marketable 
and 25 bushels rot; 7, phosphoric acid 
and potash, good growth of tops, 150 
bushels marketable, no rot. 
Tt will at once be seen that only where 
phosphoric acid was used was there a 
decent crop, but I hope that none of 
your readers will conclude that super¬ 
phosphates are the best and only ferti¬ 
lizer to use. They are the most import¬ 
ant for me. but on other soils they might 
give very different results. The poor 
showing made by nitrogen alone and 
with potash were a surprise to me, for 
to judge by the tops made they should 
have surpassed the other rows. Tbe 
“nothing” row shows plainly the condi¬ 
tion of the land as regards available fer¬ 
tility. This test plot is a duplicate of 
one made in 1902 and the results are the 
same. 
I have been carrying on some other 
large scale experiments which I think 
are of value, but I have used up so much 
space that I must stop for the present, 
simply emphasizing again what. I be¬ 
lieve is the most important thing for 
every farmer to learn and that is, that 
the results obtained elsewhere must not 
be accepted as entirely true for any par¬ 
ticular farm until it has been tested 
there, and that every farm must be its 
own experiment station. 
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Improved Robbins’ Potato Flanter 
ubc'jh-ubbtiiuiii.inii! 
lliilinibb*: ••• 
I.ltlillllUMM*"*...Ii .... 
TWO CROP ESSENTIALS 
are cultivation and keening down weeds. 
More important than deep cultivation is 
keeping the surface stirred, breaking the 
crust due to rains, and allowing the Tight, 
air, moisture and warmth to penetrate 
V quickly to the roots of the growing plant. 
L For doing just these things the ideal imple¬ 
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■ flisiiilsiiilli 
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