New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 17 
We have this season examined fourteen commercial cultures of 
legume bacteria which were packed in such metal containers and 
nave found them as worthless as the cultures examined last season. 
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY. 
Potato spraying expediments.—During the season of 1905 exten- 
. Sive potato spraying experiments were continued along practically 
the same lines as in 1904. The results appear in Bulletin No. 279. 
This concludes the fourth year of the ten-year series of potato 
spraying experiments begun in 1902. ‘Thus far the results have 
shown spraying to be highly profitable. In 1905, the average gain 
in thirteen farmers’ business experiments, including 167 acres, was 
46% bushels per acre, and the average net profit from spraying 
$20.04 per acre. Fifty other farmers who made volunteer experi- 
ments reported gains averaging 5914 bushels per acre. In the 
Station ten-year experiment at Geneva five sprayings increased the 
yield 119% bushels per acre, while three sprayings increased it 
107 bushels. In the duplicate of this experiment at Riverhead 
the gain due to five sprayings was 82 bushels per acre and to three 
sprayings 31)4 bushels. 
Soda bordeaux and lime bordeaux were again compared as to 
their ‘efficiency in the prevention of potato blight. In one test 
rows sprayed four times with lime bordeaux outyielded rows simi- 
larly sprayed with soda bordeaux by nine bushels per acre. In 
another test there was a difference of thirty-five bushels per acre 
in favor of lime bordeaux. These results agree with those obtained 
in 1904 and show that for use on potatoes soda bordeaux is not 
superior to lime bordeaux as has been claimed by some. 
The results of experiments with paris green confirm those 
obtained in similar experiments made in 1904. The conclusion is 
that potatoes are in no way injured by paris green properly applied, 
viz: in moderate quantity (one to two pounds per acre) with 
bordeaux mixture. 
In an experiment on the effect of bordeaux mixture made with 
cold water, potato foliage was in no way injured by being sprayed 
with bordeaux mixture having a temperature of forty to fifty 
degrees Fahrenheit. 
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