MAINE) AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION I9II 297 



closed, and the results will soon be published as a station bul- 

 letin. In addition to the work along this line at Highmoor, 

 co-operative work of similar nature has been carried on in 

 three orchards at Greene, with satisfactory results. 



The several experiments in orchard management indicated 

 above have not been in operation for a time sufificient to war- 

 rant any conclusions, although such striking evidence of the 

 effect of animal pasturage under existing conditions has been 

 given that the latter experiment may be hereafter modified or 

 discontinued. 



INVESTIGATIONS BEGUN IN I9II. 



The past season has also witnessed the beginning of the 

 following new lines of work. 



1. A comparison of a fertilizer excessively high in nitrogen, 

 somewdiat comparable to the Fisher formula, with a well bal- 

 anced chemical ration. For this the Baldwin orchard is being 

 utilized as well as a row of 35 trees included in no other work 



2. Apple breeding, in collaboration with tlie department of 

 Biology. The object of this experiment is two-fold — to at- 

 tempt the improvement of Maine's commercial varieties and to 

 accumulate data bearing on the problems of heredity. The 

 work of 191 1 resulted in fruits obtained by hand pollination 

 and in seedlings grown from seed planted in the spring. The 

 study of seedlings and of crosses of standard varieties is being 

 extended. 



3. A fundamental inquiry into the relation of stock and 

 cion has its preliminaries in a nursery of about 3000 French 

 Crab seedlings, planted in the spring of 191 1. Of these about 

 1000 root grafts on Tolman Sweet cions were made, thus sup- 

 plying a Tolman Sweet trunk for future comparison with other 

 stocks. As these young trees develop selections will be made 

 from them and a new experimental orchard definitely devoted 

 to the stock and cion work will be set out. 



RESULTS OF RENOVATION METHODS EMPLOYED. 



It is advisable to here again emphasize the fact that these 

 experiments as well as those in orchard management are not 



