86 Report oF THE BoTANIST OF THE 
in ordinary farm practice. The cost of spraying also depends 
to a large extent upon the way it is managed. 
Still another factor is the severity of the diseases, downy mildew 
and anthracnose. When the diseases do not appear until the lat- 
ter part of August and are mild in their attacks the profit from 
spraying will not be nearly so great as when the diseases appear 
during the first week in August and are very virulent. However, 
so far as Long Island is concerned, it is safe to say that the diseases 
will be sufficiently destructive in any season to justify the ex- 
pense of spraying. 
TABLE SHOWING THE INCREASE IN YIELD AND THE PROFIT FROM SPRAYING 


CUCUMBERS. 
qo, © © HO be 
Yield per acre. Ke Ss ate OAS Z8 bb 
; ee eee Ts: 5 8 
Location of experiment. ao. > : ss a s ze 4 
Sprayed. sprayed, Sno 88 82 396 
; 5 > D dj 
Greenlawn ........ 120,917 40,000 80,917 $97 48 $23 74 $73 74 
Deer -Parkitie sess 75,675 35,000 40,675 44 61 22 10 22 51 
Mattituck ......... 28,740 40,000 —11,260....... 15 GO > ieee ae 
Smithtown Branch. 66,790 23,564 43,226 54 03 17 03 37 00 

zx — 


THE PROFIT IN GROWING PICKLES. 
Since the yield of the late cucumbers has become so discour- 
agingly small a great many farmers have been in doubt as to 
whether the crop is any longer a profitable one on Long Island. 
The very small crops in 1896 and 1897 caused a good many to 
give up pickle growing. ‘There were many others who decided 
to try one more season. These have been somewhat encouraged, 
because the crop of 1898 was considerably better than those of 
the preceding two years. Our estimate of the average yield of 
unsprayed fields on Long Island in 1898 is 34,000 per acre. The 
weather conditions in 1898 were fairly good for pickles, especially 
the months of July and August, and since the downy mildew did 
not appear until about August 20, early planted fields produced a 
