EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 149 



REPORT OF CONSULTING HORTICULTURIST. 



R. S. Shaw, Director: 



Sir — During the past year my work in the Experiment Station has 

 included the general oversight of the fruit-testing sub-station at South 

 Haven, a considerable amount of cooperative experimental work, par- 

 ticularl}' in the relation of fruit culture, and an extended correspond- 

 ence in replying to letters of inquiry that have been addressed directly 

 to me or that have been referred either by yourself or other officers of the 

 station. 



THE SOUTH HAVEN STATION. 



Mr. Frank A. Wilkeu has continued in immediate charge of the sta- 

 tion. The work outlined in my report of last year has been in progress 

 and the results obtained during the season of 1908 were reported in the 

 special bulletin which was distributed in the spring. 



The original plan of the station was that it should be used for the 

 testing of such new fruits as were brought to the notice of the public 

 and, at the same time, for growing the standard varieties in order that 

 the comparative value of the new sorts might be ascertained. Although 

 the tract occupied by the station is supposed to contain fifteen acres, 

 two streets have been opened through it and a large amount of the land 

 is also occupied by buildings, lawns, drives and by the hedges which 

 surround the two blocks, so that but little more than ten acres is 

 actually available for experimental work. When the station was estab- 

 lished, practically all of the land was planted with trees and bush fruits 

 using two trees of each variety and from six to twelve of the bush 

 fruits to be used for variety testing. The trees were planted sixteen 

 feet each way with the idea of removing them as they grew and began to 

 crowd each other. This has been done with most of the apple trees and 

 with some of the older plantations of cherries and pears. The peach 

 trees that were first planted reached maturity some years since and 

 were removed. Trees of other new varieties were secured, as oppor- 

 tunity occurred, and were planted upon land on which bush fruits had 

 been growing while new plantations of the different bush fruits were 

 made where one block of the peach trees was taken out. 



On account of the close planting and particularly because of the fact 

 that there are now only one or two trees of a variety, it has not been 

 possible to carry on any very definite plot experiments either with ferti- 

 lizers or insecticides and fungicides, and the conditions are far from 

 favorable for experiments with orchard cultural methods. While the 

 location of the station is, on many accounts, veiw favorable and it should 

 bs continued on its present site for a number of 3'ears, the writer has for 

 some time been of the opinion that in order to do the best work addi- 

 tional land is necessary. Although there is none available adjacent 

 to or in the close vicinity of the station it will be an easy matter to 

 find a suitable tract which should contain at least forty acres within 



