New YorRK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. rag 
ments with sulphur and lime. Thaxter’s experiments were on a 
very small scale. We concluded to repeat them on a scale sufii- 
ciently large to enable us to determine whether the treatment 
is applicable to farm practice. 
EXPERIMENTS IN 1896. 
Experiments were commenced in the spring of 1896 and con- 
tinued for five years. They were all made in the vicinity of 
Florida, N. Y., which is located in the midst of the Orange County 
chion district. 
In 1896 one-half acre was devoted to the experiments. AS we 
had, at that time, little acquaintance with the locality we were 
obliged to depend upon others for the selection of a suitable piece 
of land for the experiments. When the onions came up it was 
found that only a small percentage of the plants in the check 
plats were diseased—that is to say, the soil was not sufficiently 
impregnated with smut to make it Suitable for an experiment on 
the treatment of the disease. Consequently, the results were of 
so little importance that it is not worth while to discuss them 
here. . | 
EXPERIMENTS IN 1897. 
For the experiments in 1897 another field was selected. This 
time we were more fortunate in securing smut-infested soil, but 
other difficulties were encountered. Some parts of the field were 
more diseased than others. The plats could not all be arranged 
s0 as to admit of close comparisons of yields. The available sup- 
ply of air-slaked lime became exhausted before all the plats were, 
sown; and this necessitated some changes in the original plan. 
A strong wind at time of sowing somewhat interfered with the 
‘uniform distribution of the sulphur and lime. The onion maggot, 
Anthomyia ceparum, caused unequal amounts of damage in differ- 
ent parts of the field. In consequence of these difficulties it is 
best to leave out of consideration a large part of the field and 
confine our attention to two series of plats covering a total area 
of 18,960 square feet, or a little less than one-half acre. — 
