Cornell University 



LSiTY, Ithaca, N. Y., I 

 April 23, 1897. ) 



Honorable Commissioner of Agriculture, Albany : 



Sir : The ensuing paper is submitted for publication under 

 Chap. 437 of the Laws of 1896. 



The bulletins which have been issued under the Experiment 

 Station Extension Bill have been of four general types, — those 

 which have attempted to improve the cultivation of staple or well 

 known crops, which have endeavored to interest the farmer in the 

 amenities of rural life (as the flower and tree-planting bulletins), 

 those which aim to expound well known facts and principles, 

 and those, like the present, which suggest new avenues of profit. 

 There of are, of course, no hard and fast lines dividing these 

 classes of bulletins, and it is hoped that the total effect of them 

 has been educative. The writer will be glad if they have opened 

 new and pleasant lines of thought to the dweller in the country, 

 and have thereby given him any new incentives to live and work. 

 Several years ago, the writer undertook the investigation of the 

 winter forcing of vegetables, and whilst that type of experiment 

 is not to be discontinued, it is nevertheless to form a very sub- 

 sidiary part of the work in the next few years. That ground has 

 been fairly well traversed. He now drops the Experiment Station 

 Extension work by suggesting a new field of experiment,— the 

 winter forcing of fruits. L. H. BailEy. 



