Smyrna times., 1915-07-07
EXPERIMENTS TESTED OUT
BENEFIT STATE FARMERS
REPORT OF YEARS WORK AT
DELAWARE COLLEGE STATION
Nitrogen Needed for Peach Crops is
the Opinion. to Help Bring the
Peach Growing Back to It's Own

Nitrogen Needed for Peach Crops is |
the Opinion. to Help Bring the
Peach Growing Back TO its Own
Heads of the various departments
Of the Delaware College Experiment
Station have just submitted to Direc-
tor Harry Hayward of the station
their reports covering the work done
in their departments during the fiscal
year ending June 80. These reports
are unusually interesting to farmers
of the State as they tell Of the exper-
iments being made and results OBJ
tained relative to various crops and
fruits that can be grown in the State.
Those who submitted reports are
Professor Charles A. McCue, horticul-
turist; Professor A. f. Grantham.
agronomist; DR. Thomas f. Manns,
of the department of Plant Pathol-
ogy and Soil Bscteriology and Pro-
fessor Firman Thompson, of the de-
partment of chemistry. Because Of
the great success of the college farm
orchards the past two years. the re-
port of Professor McCue is Of special
interest 1t says with respect to the
peach crop: We aready have records
showing that many of our peach var
ieties are unfitte d for Delaware con-
ditions and also that there are several
very promising varieties in the or
chards Among these / might men,
tion Miss Lola. Francis and Ray.
During the past year 8, number of
potato varieties were grown for test
ing. The two year rotation fertilizer
| blocks Of tomatoes were grown for
the last time in 1914. We feel that
we have secured ali the useful data
possible from this work and there was
no necessity of going farther with
the work. IN brief the two year ro-
tatiOn of tomatoes. crimson clover,
corn, crimson clover. has not been a
success. Catches Of cover in the
corn were too uncertain and the humus
content of the soil has steadily de-
creased. During the present year.
the new tomato fertilizer blocks have
been continued and we are blen6ing
every effort TO advance our work IL
fixing the Shallcross variety which
we have been TESTING and improving
for the past six years. Our policy
is that from row on our tomato work
will consist of an endeavor TO improve
old strains by selection and originate
new strains by breeding "A tesf
of wintering over cabbage in the fel,
for seed purposes proved failure
For seed production in the northern
part of the State Il will be necessar,
to bury the heads. THE demons
tration peach work at Odessa was al
unqualified success. A large crop o
peaches was harvested by the owne
and a good profit realized. Tn
particular point brought out in thi
work was that many of the so calle
peach failures in the Middletown are
are due TO lack of proper culturs
methods an5 are not due to any sol
exhaustion from long years of peac
growing. "The sweet potato wor
in Laurel was carried out as planne
and is being continued for the pre-
sent year. The principal point broUgh
ont in the work was that lining is nc
necessary for sweet potatoes. and
fact may prove detrimental unless
is used in the clover cron which pre-
cedes the sweet potato. AS resu
Of our work we have also recommends
to the growers of that region th'
they use ore potash for sweets ar
cut down slightly the percentage {
acid phosphate. By doing these tv
things the amount of fertilizer US,
per acre can be materially lessened.
Al