EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. Ill 



3. I suggest that the dominating features of experimental work in 

 horticulture at the college be two: cross pollination and plant breed- 

 ing. This does not mean that other needed lines of investigation shall 

 be entirely neglected, but that our energies shall be expended mainly 

 upon these two subjects. These experiments are chosen from the many 

 that might be undertaken with profit because of their interest to the 

 practical horticulturists of the state and because the results may have 

 great commercial value. 



EXPERIMENTS IN PROGRESS. 



These may be classified as follows: 



1. Pollination Problems. 



(a) Cross pollination of orchard fruits. In charge of Mr. 



Fletcher. 



(b) Cross pollination of the strawberry. In charge of Mr. 



Fletcher. 



2. Plant Breeding. 



(a) Selection of seed potatoes. In charge of Mr. McCue. 



(b) Breeding blight-resistent varieties of potatoes. In charge 



of Mr. McCue. 



(c) The practical value of selection or ''pedigree" in the 



Ijropagation of the strawberry. In charge of Mr. 

 Fletcher. 



(d) A comparison of methods of propagating the strawberry. 



In charge of Mr. Fletcher. 



3. Miscellaneous Experiments. 



(a) Spraying for potato blight. In charge of Mr. McCue. 



(b) Lettuce diseases. In charge of Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Gun- 



son. 



Pollination Experiments. — These are a continuation of work done 

 by Mr. Fletcher for several years. Their main object is to determine 

 which of the common commercial varieties of fruits are benefited by 

 being planted near other sorts that can supply them with pollen and 

 what varieties it is best to plant together. Incidentally the seeds of 

 desirable crosses will be saved and planted in the effort to secure 

 varieties that are an impr(5vement on existing sorts in some important 

 respects. In November Ave shall have ready for publication a bulletin 

 giving the results of our work on Bartlett and Kieffer pears, Gold 

 Drop peach and Spy apples. About 12,000 blossoms of these varieties 

 were crossed this season, the pollenizers used being Anjou, Lawrence, 

 Bartlett, Duchess and Garber on Kieffer; Anjou, Lawrence and Kieffer 

 on Bartlett; St. Johns, Late Crawford and Lewis Seedling on Gold 

 Drop, and Baldwin and Rhode Island Greening and Spy. The results 

 indicate a marked difference in the value of these several varieties as 

 pollenizers for the varieties under experiment, and these differences 

 are of practical significance. 



Three thousand strawberry blossoms were crossed with interesting 

 results. The strawberry pollination experiments will be continued for; 

 at least another season before the results will be ready for publication. 



Selection of Seed Potatoes. — Three-fourths of an acre was planted to 



