| 
NEw YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 105 
From an examination of the table it will be seen that the re- 
sults in 1904 agree with those obtained in 1902 in showing the 
sprayed tubers to contain a considerably higher percentage of 
dry matter and also of starch. 
EFFECT ON COOKING QUALITY. 
Several cooking tests were made to determine whether there 
wes any difference in quality between the sprayed and un- 
sprayed potatoes. In one of these tests 21 tubers from a row 
sprayed five times were compared with the same number of 
tubers from an adjacent unsprayed row. Each lot contained 
tubers of small, medium and large size. Some were boiled and 
others baked. It was the unanimous opinion of the five persons 
who participated in this test that the sprayed potatoes were 
much more mealy and of better flavor than the unsprayed. The 
difference was more pronounced when the potatoes were boiled 
than when baked. 
In another test four sprayed and four unsprayed tubers of 
approximately the same weight (eight ounces each) were cut 
crosswise, without peeling, into halves. One half of each tuber 
was used in the test and the other half rejected. The total 
weight of the four sprayed pieces was 16 ounces and of the four 
unsprayed pieces the same. The two lots were boiled in the 
same vessel for 25 minutes. Again, the difference in mealiness 
was strikingly in favor of the sprayed pieces. (See Plate VI.) 
In some of the other tests the difference was less marked, but 
in all cases great enough to leave no doubt that spraying had 
materially increased the mealiness. In fact, some of the larger 
sprayed tubers were so mealy that they boiled to pieces more 
than is desirable. 
These cooking tests were made about the middle of January. 
FARMERS’ BUSINESS EXPERIMENTS. 
OBJECT OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 
Many farmers question the reliability of the results obtained 
in experiments like the Station ten-year experiments described 
in this bulletin. They doubt that such results can be obtained 
in ordinary farm practice. The objections't to the experiments 
“See Bulletin 221 of this Station, pp. 257-261, for a discussion of these 
objections. 
