SCHEDULE OF FIELD EXPERIMENTS

IN PROGRESS AT THE STATION,

SEASON OF 1889.

Agricultural Department.

Farm Crops.-General variety tests and comparisons, as shown by the lists on following pages, especially of corn, oats, wheat, tobacco, and sorghum.

Corn. An experiment in growing Indian corn with a number of different fertilizers and combinations of fertilizing materials. Twenty-two plots of one-sixteenth of an acre each were planted with Dent corn and treated exactly alike, except manuring. No two plots have had the same plant food applied, in kind and quantity.

Potatoes.-Based upon the results of last year's experiments in cutting potatoes for planting, as per Bulletin No. 2 of this Station, a field test has been instituted by planting one acre of early potatoes and one acre of late potatoes, with the seed tubers in successive rows across the field, in four different forms, viz: (a) a large whole potato; (b) a medium-sized whole potato; (c) a piece of usual cutting; (d) a piece bearing a single eye. The acre of early potatoes is planted half with Beauty of Hebron and half with the New Queen. The varieties used on the late acre are Empire State and the "Dandy," the latter a new Hebron seedling from Maine.

Tobacco.-(a.) A variety test, including twenty-nine (29) varieties.

(b.) A fertilizer experiment, with twenty-two different varieties of tobacco. An equal number of plants of each are grown upon fifteen plots, treated in as many different ways of feeding the crop. General plan like that for corn, explained above, but the fertilizers used very different.

Peas. A variety of cow-pea, called "Unknown," proved so promising at this Station last year, especially as to quantity of forage produced from very little seed, that it is again on trial this season. Plots of one-eighth of an acre each are growing, from different quantities of seed, to determine the true economy in use of the seed.

Sorghum.-(a.) Tests of a very large number of varieties.

(b.) Fertilizer experiment with four selected varieties on twenty-two plots, differently manured, on the same general plan as with corn, tobacco, and tomatoes.

The Forage Garden.—This has been begun by starting with the purest seed obtainable, numerous grasses, clovers, and other forage plants. It is intended to continue this collection, adding to it, year by year, any other grasses or forage plants that will grow in Maryland, for purposes of comparison, botanical study, and raising seed for subsequent field tests of the most promising kinds.

Fertilizer Tests.-Besides those herein mentioned, a more extended series of fertilizer experiments with various crops, and soil tests with fertilizers, is to be started on land now being specially prepared for the purpose.

Rotation and Renovation.—A series of six plots of one-half acre each, of fairly uniform and well worn land, have been set apart, and this season carry their first crops in a long-time experiment on the renovation of land by a systematic six-course rotation of crops, both with and without manures. (See Annual Report, 1888, p. 53.)

Horticultural Department.

Orchard Fruits.-Variety tests, etc., as explained in Bulletin No. 4.

Small Fruits.—Comparisons and tests of new varieties.

Tomatoes.-(a.) Very complete tests of sixty-two varieties grown under like conditions and with detailed comparisons, including physical and chemical examination.

(b.) The comparison of a few selected varieties grown with different fertilizers. Twelve plots, each one-fortieth of an acre, have been treated with plant food differing in kind and quantity.

(c.) A duplicate fertilizer test with plants set in boxes of sterilized sand and plant food applied as on the plots.

Potatoes.-A test of the value of Northern grown "seed" potatoes. Duplicate rows of fourteen varieties under like conditions, from

tubers grown last year at the Experiment Stations in Maryland and Vermont.

Onions. A test of the comparative results, in earliness and quantity of product, from onion-sets of different sizes.

Seed Tests. An extended examination is in progress of the seeds, sold in the State, especially for gardens and truck farms, to include purity, vitality, germination, and trueness to name.

THE MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.

CORPORATION:

The BOARD of TRUSTEES of the MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Agricultural (Station) Committee of the Board of Trustees:

Ex officio Hon. E. E. JACKSON, Governor, President of the Board. Messrs. GOLDSBOROUGH, SEIBERT, SILVER, BRATTAN and BIEDLER.

OFFICERS AND STAFF:

HENRY E. ALVORD, C. E., Director.
HARRY J. PATTERSON, B. S., Chemist.
WILLIAM H. BISHOP, B. S., Horticulturist.
ALBERT I. HAYWARD, B. S., Agriculturist.
ERNEST H. BRINKLEY, Machinist.

DAVID B. PERRY, Stenographer.

LOCATION.

On the Estate of the MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, in Prince George's County, eight miles north from the City of Washington.

RAILROAD STATION, for Passengers and Freight: COLLEGE STATION, MD. (On the Baltimore & Ohio R. R.

P. O. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, Prince George's Co., Maryland. TELEGRAPH ADDRESS.-COLLEGE, MD. (Western Union Tel. Co.) EXPRESS OFFICE.-COLLEGE STATION, MD. (U. S. Express Co.) Address, in all cases

MD. AGR’L EXPERIMENT STATION.

PRESS OF GUGGENHEIMER, WEIL & CO., BALTIMORE, MD.