New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 137 
have not considered spraying a very practical nor promising 
method of preventing the rust. In the special case of asparagus 
which has dense as well as very smooth foliage, spraying is a 
much more difficult task than is the spraying of many other 
plants. Still another difficulty which some have set forth as a 
disadvantage in asparagus spraying is the lack of suitable 
machinery to do the work on a large scale. In addition to the 
above factors the preliminary work done by Dr. Halsted* showed 
an advantage from spraying of only about 20 per cent. and more 
recently Dr. Halsted’ has reported injury to asparagus from 
spraying. Basing their conclusions upon these results, combined 
with the difficulties to be overcome, several writers have ques- 
tioned the advisability and economic value of spraying. 
EXPERIMENTS ON LONG ISLAND, 1898~’99, 
The results given by Dr. Halsted were based upon estimates of 
the percentages of rusty plants on sprayed plats and on un- 
sprayed plats, a difficult method in the case of asparagus with 
its dense foliage. It appears that a much fairer method would 
be to select a cutting bed which is old enough to be in its prime, 
and determine whether any difference in yield by weight could 
be obtained as a result of spraying. Furthermore the persist- 
ence of the rust each year together with the resultant weakening 
of the beds and a decreasing yield as shown by the records of the 
canning factory, called for vigorous measures of some description. 
Hence in 1898 arrangements were made with Mr. Arthur L. 
Downs” of Mattituck, N. Y., to spray a portion of one of his 
Columbian White asparagus fields. 
As this work was started too late in 1898 to carry out that 
year all the details required for a complete experiment, a trial 
2N. J. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 129, also Rept. 1898, p. 345. 
4N, J. Agr. Exp. Sta. Rept. 1898, p. 845, also Rept. 1899, p. 410. 
* At the time, we were conducting some illustrative field work on pickle 
spraying on Mr. Downs’ place, hence we had apparatus and materials 
handy for spraying of asparagus. -Furthermore Mr. Downs is a practical 
and reliable farmer, a graduate of Cornell University, and a man inter- 
ested in doing good, careful work, especially in experimental lines. 
