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New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 31 
the area devoted to this crop will doubtless be largely extended 
as a result of this station’s investigations in this line. 
Potato scab.— Probably all of the farmers of New York State 
know this old offender by the above name and do not need an 
extended description to enable them ro recognize its characters. 
But, possibly, few have stopped to think of ihe aggregate amount 
of tubers of marketable size that each year are debarred from the 
market on account of the scab disfigurations. No eareful esti- 
mate of the amount of annual loss thus occasioned can be here 
presented, but it certainly is immense. Recent investigations by 
experiment station workers in other States have demonstrated 
that the scab is caused by a fungus parasite. Experiments in 
preventing this disease have been conducted by this station during 
the past season, some with partial success, some with total 
failure. A bulletin on this subject soon to be issued will discuss 
quite fully the measure of success attained in some cases and the 
reason for failure in others and will present some valuable hints 
on the prevention of this disease. 
The potato blight, which is the primary cause of a blight of 
the vines and a dry rot of the tuber frequently followed by soft 
rot has been successfully and profitably treated at this station 
by using Bordeaux mixture applied in the form of a spray three 
or four times during the summer. ~A good pump and the Vermurel 
nozzle are believed to be necessary to secure the best results. 
The treated plants this year gave an increased yield of forty 
bushels per acre, as compared with the untreated plants. At 
sixty cents per bushel this means an increase of twenty dollars 
per acre in the value of the crop. The cost of labor and «f mate- 
rials for four applications of the Bordeaux mixture was at the rate 
of seven dollars and eight cents per acre, leaving a net gain of 
sixteen dollars and ninety-two cents Der acre apparently due to 
the spraying. 
Bean anthracnose.— Probably few people even in the bean 
‘ growing districts realize the extent and importance of the bean 
- crop in this State. In the last annual report of this station the — 
iS 
director called attention to the fact that but a few years ago New 
York State produced nearly half (over forty-two per cent) of 
