New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 131 
due to spraying, these fourteen experiments really included 23 
separate tests. All work connected with the spraying was done by 
the farmers themselves in such manner as they deemed best. 
In the fall, the tubers on one or more of the unsprayed rows 
were carefully weighed. The same was done with one or more 
sprayed rows on either side. In this manner it was determined 
how much the yield had been increased by spraying. In all except 
one case, a representative of the Station was present when the test 
rows were dug and assisted with the weighing. The length and 
width of the rows were carefully measured, the Station representa- 
tive assisting with this, also. Accordingly we can vouch for the 
accuracy of the yields reported. 
It was our intention to visit each of the experiments two or 
three times during the spraying season for the purpose of taking 
notes, but this was found impracticable for the three experiments 
in the northern part of the State. On this account there is a re- 
grettable lack of information concerning the prevalence of blight 
and insects in some of the experiments. 
The experiment fields varied in size from six to twenty-one 
acres, the total acreage of the fourteen experiments being 16624 
acres. As far as practicable they were placed in localities where 
the potato is a leading farm crop. In eleven of the experiments 
the test rows were in plain view from a public road so that the re- 
sults could be seen by passersby. 
The method of spraying in the Hebron experiment was one we 
call the two-hose-and-three-men method. In the other thirteen ex- 
periments the spraying was done with horse sprayers of several 
different kinds covering three to seven rows at each passage.” 
“Nothing is said in this bulletin concerning the relative merits of dif- 
ferent potato sprayers. It has been our aim to have the leading potato 
sprayers represented in the experiments, but this is not a comparative test 
of spraying machinery. The larger gain or larger net profit obtained in some 
experiments than in others is not necessarily due to a difference in the kind 
of sprayer used. It is impossible to make close comparisons because the 
conditions in the different experiments vary greatly. The Station is obliged 
to decline to answer the question, Which isthe best potato sprayer? We can 
only say that there are now upon the market several good, practical potato 
sprayers. The excellent results obtained in the business experiments during 
the past three years are proof of this. 
