Report of Progress. 309 



Horticultural Divisiofi (Z. H. Bailey, Chief). 



The horticultural enterprises which have been prosecuted under the 

 auspices of the Nixon Bill during the past year have been of two 

 general types, those conducted in various parts of the state, and those 

 undertaken at the central Station at Ithaca. Work of a distinctly 

 scientific nature can be prosecuted successfully only at the central 

 Station, where facilities are at hand and where the subjects are 

 constantly under the eye of the investigator. 



In field work in the state, the newer enterprises are at work with 

 fertilizers in strawberries in Oswego county and experiments in celery 

 culture on the onion lands of Orange county. The strawberry studies 

 were begun by the late E. G. Lodeman, and they have now completed 

 their second year. Some very satisfactory and practical results have 

 been obtained, but it is desired to prosecute the work at least another 

 year before reporting on it. Three years' study of the effects of 

 fertilizers on treed nursery lands at Dansville has now been brought 

 to a close with satisfactory conclusions. Experiments begun some 

 time since in Chautauqua and Yates counties in the fertilizing of 

 vineyards are also going forward. 



At Ithaca, experiments were made during the summer on new 

 spraying materials and devices, and on the means to combat the San 

 Jose scale, which, fortunately for experiments, colonized itself on the 

 horticultural grounds. Some of the results of the work appear in 

 Bulletin 144. Other work at Ithaca is proceeding along the following 

 lines : Studies of Japanese plums, of methods of tilling and handling 

 orchard lands, mushroom growing, strawberry forcing (a preliminary 

 report published in Bulletin 134), experiments in floriculture, and 

 studies of practicable means of combating insects and fungi. 



Chemical Division ( G. C. Caldwall, Chief). 



I. SUGAR BEET INVESTIGATIONS (bY G. W. CAVANAUGH). 



During the spring of 1897, this Station received from the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, 500 pounds of sugar 

 beet seed. This seed was distributed in pound packages to 500 

 farmers throughout the state, together with directions for planting the 

 seed and cultivating the crop. 



