72 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ashes as a fertilizer for all kinds of vegetables and fruits. They can 

 generally be obtained at little or no expense, and an application of 100 to 

 200 bushels per acre will often increase the yield from 50 to 100 

 per cent. For vegetables, in jparticular, well decomposed stable manure 

 can hardly be used to excess, and in intensive gardening forty two-horse 

 loads per acre can be applied with profit. When stable manure and wood 

 ashes can be obtained at the j)rices current in most sections of the state, 

 we do not believe that commercial fertilizers can be used as manures with 

 profit, except in special cases. For early vegetables a small quantity of 

 nitrate of soda can be aiDplied with profit. It is a soluble salt and will 

 furnish nitrogen to the plants until they are able to procure it from the 

 soil. The hotbed and greenhouse soil, and for certain crops when there is 

 a lack of phosphoric acid in the soil, ground bone or dissolved bone-black 

 may be used. When fertilizers are to be furnished as complete manures, 

 although the want of the plant should be considered, there can be no 

 rational system of manuring that does not take into account the constit- 

 uents of the soil that are available as plant food. 



AS TO FUNGI. 



For several years we have given considerable time to a study of the life 

 histories and the testing of remedies for the destruction of the fungi 

 affecting our fruits and vegetables. In 1889 some six fungicides were 

 tested as remedies for the apple scab, and all were found more or less 

 effective. The best results were secured from the use of the modified eau 

 celeste, with carbonate of copper a good second. The fruits on two large 

 trees were examined, and eighty-eight per cent, were more or less affected 

 with scab, while on the trees sprayed five times with modified eau celeste 

 only twelve per cent, were affected, and the scab was much less injurious 

 on these fruits than on the average of the affected fruits from the unsprayed 

 trees. It was noticed that the average weight of the scabby fruits was ten 

 per cent, less than that of those free from scab, and that a similar difference 

 existed between the weight of the smooth fruits on the unsprayed trees as 

 compared with those on the sprayed trees. 



It seems probable that a portion at least of this should be attributed 

 to the injury of the scab fungus to the foliage of the unsj)rayed trees. 



Experiments thus far conducted show that wherever spraying is feasible 

 nearly all fungi can be destroyed, provided the application is before the 

 mycelium of the fungus has penetrated the epidermis of the plant. To 

 be effectual, it is necessary to repeat the application at frequent intervals. 



EXPEEIMENTAL FORCING-HOUSES. 



The fall and winter months were fully occupied in the construction and 

 care of two experimental forcing-houses. We made use of various methods 

 of building, glazing, heating, and ventilating, and as a part of the experi- 

 ment introduced several features that, so far as we know, had never been 

 used in greenhouse construction. One house was heated by steam and the 

 other with hot water. The heaters were alike so far as grate and heating 

 surface was concerned, and the radiating surface was properly adjusted in 

 the houses. After a trial of five months it was evident that equal efficiency 

 could be obtained from hot water with an expenditure for fuel of from 

 twenty to twenty-five per cent, less than was required in the steam heater. 



