PRACTICAL PAPERS—LATE FARM EXPERIMENTS. 877 
That there is a difference in the yield that cannot be attributed to the 
size of the seed, or the method of cultivation, will be seen by comparing Nos. 
2 and 7, which were treated precisely alike, yet one yields twenty-six bushels 
per acre more than the other. This is a further proof of the difSculty of 
securing those uniform conditions in agricultural experiments, which will 
enable one to draw correct conclusions from a limited number of trials. 
In table No. 3 will be found the per cent, of yield given by each method 
of planting for 1868 and 1869, the means of Nos. 2 and 7 in each case being 
taken as a basis of comparison. 
Table 3. 
Plat. 
1868. 
1869. 
No. 1. 
107 
136 
Mean of Nos. 2 and 7. .. 
100 
100 
98 
108 
98 
92 
93 
106 
116 
109 
Mean of Nos. 2 and 7. 
100 
100 
73 
83 
Nos. 1 and 7 are taken as a basis of comparison, because they correspond 
most nearly to the usual method of preparing seed. 
Hill and Drill Planting. —Taking hill planting at 100 as a basis of com¬ 
parison, and drill planting gives 78.8 per cent. This yield is upon adjacent 
rows, the products having been carefully weighed. 
To determine the value of the “Worm and Insect Exterminator and Fer¬ 
tilizer,” of the Union Fertilizer Company of New York, as a remedy for the 
Colorado potato beetle, one ounce of the “fertilizer” was mixed with the 
earth of each hill of six rows through the center of the field, and for six suc¬ 
cessive mornings (July 6th to 11th) the vines were sprinkled with a solution 
of the “ fertilizer.” This treatment had no visible effect upon the insects. 
W’hen harvested, unequal number of hills upon which no “fertilizer” had 
been used, but from which the beetles had been picked by hand, yielded 180 
bs. ; with “fertilizer,” as above, 164 lbs. 
This experiment does not show the value of this substance as a fertilizer, 
but that it is of no value as a remedy for the Colorado potato beetle. The 
reason of a smaller yield, is doubtless that the “ fertilizer ” did not kill the 
insects, while upon that with which this plat is compared they were all de¬ 
stroyed by hand picking. 
In experimenting with the potato beetle, one part by weight of Paris 
green, mixed with eight parts of wood ashes, was found to be effective in 
destroying them. Yet, spreading upon the land in cultivation an active 
mineral poison, as is the subarsenite of copper, the poisonous properties of 
