NEw York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 149 
These experiments were designed to show the increase in yield 
due to spraying and also how the benefit from three sprayings com- 
pares with that obtained from five; but no account was to be taken 
of the expense. A duplicate of this series was to be conducted at 
Riverhead on Long Island. The following year (1903), a series 
of farmers’ business experiments was begun with the intention of 
continuing them until 1912. Each year several of these business 
experiments are conducted in coOperation with farmers in different 
parts of the State who spray several acres doing all the work in 
their own way and keeping a full account of all expense of it. In 
each experiment a few rows are left unsprayed for comparison. At 
digging time a representative of the. Station assists with the digging 
and weighing of sprayed and unsprayed rows for the purpose of de- 
termining the increase in yield due to spraying. In this manner 
the Station attempts to determine the profit from spraying potatoes 
as it is done by farmers under actual farm conditions. Additional 
data bearing on the subject are obtained from numerous farmers 
who have made spraying experiments on their own account. Each 
year the Station secures reports of as many as possible of such 
experiments, which are called volunteer experiments. 
At the end of the first five years the results stand as follows: 
In the Station ten-year experiments the average increase in yield 
from spraying has been: At Geneva, 132 bu. per acre for five spray- 
ings and 103.3 bu. for three sprayings; at Riverhead, 66.3 bu. per 
acre for five sprayings and 35.3 bu. for three sprayings. In the 
farmers’ business experiments (48 experiments in 4 years) the aver- 
age gain from spraying has been 52 bu. per acre. The average total 
expense of spraying, $4.85 per acre and the average net profit $20.51 
per acre. In the volunteer experiments (153 experiments in three 
years), the average gain from spraying has been 58 bu. per acre.**® 
What will be the final results of the experiments can not be fore- 
told, but up to the present time spraying has certainly made a good 
showing. Since about 400,000 acres of potatoes are grown in New 
York a net profit of $20 per acre on the average means a saving 
which amounts in the aggregate to $8,000,000 annually. . 
It is gratifying to note that potato growers are showing much 
* Bul. 221 (1902); same in Rpt. 21:77—-104. 
Bul. 241 (1903); same in Rpt. 22:117-162. 
Bul. 264 (1905); same in Rpt. 24:89-194. 
Bul. 279 (1906) ; same in Rpt. 25:119-187. 
Bul. 290 (1907). 
