REPORT OF THE HORTICULTURIST 121 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



POTATO SPRAYING EXPERIMENTS, 1905. 



This year five comparative experiments were made, there being eighteen varieties 

 in each test. The potatoes were planted on May 26, 33 sets of each variety being used. 

 Level cultivation was adopted. The figures given are the averages of the eighteen 

 kinds tested. This experiment was practically the same as was conducted in 1904, 

 and in the report for that year fuller details are given regarding the different for- 

 mulas and the relative cost of application. The Bordeaux mixture, Soda Bordeaux, 

 and Bordeaux mixture and Bug Death were each applied five times. With the two 

 first, Paris green was added when necessary. Where Bug Death alone was used it was 

 applied twice dry and four times with water. 



Average Yield per Acre MarJcetaMe Potatoes, 1905 (18 varieties). 



Bush. Lbs. 



Bordeaux mixture and Paris green 228 4 



Soda Bordeaux and Paris green 211 27 



Bordeaux mixture and Bug Death 182 7 



Paris green only 141 32 



Bug Death 107 33 



TOMATOES— TEST OE VAEIETIES. 



The tomato is such a popular vegetable that it has received much attention in 

 the horticultural department. Practically all the varieties which have been offered 

 for sale have been tested during recent years, the greater part of which have now been 

 discarded, although 54 sorts were tested this year. 



The Bright and Early, which heads the list for productiveness this year, has nearly 

 always been one of the most productive. It is, however, too small for commercial 

 purposes, but where weight of crop is the chief consideration this should prove a very 

 valuable variety. It is smooth, regular in shape and of an attractive scarlet colour, 

 but is below' medium to small in size. The main crop varieties, which have averaged 

 best in productiveness in the past and which are of good shape, are: Brinton's Best, 

 Trophy, and Matchless (scarlet); and Burpee's Climax and Autocrat (purplish pink). 

 The Marvel, one of the newer scarlet main crop varieties, is a very fine sort. 



Among early varieties. Sparks' EarUana continues to take first place. It is the 

 earliest smooth scarlet tomato which has been tested. In the table containing the 

 list of earliest varieties for 1905, it will be noticed that Sparks' Earliana (C.E.F.) 

 gave by far the largest weight of early ripe fruit. This was from seed selected for 

 the two previous years from the earliest ripening fruits of this variety at the Central 

 Experimental Earm, and shows the importance of selecting and saving one's own 

 seed when possible. In this instance the plants from the C. E. F. seed produced 

 more than twice as much early fruit as that from imported seed. In addition to the 

 six earliest tomatoes for 1905, the Dominion Day, Frogmore Selected, and ChaUv's 

 Early Jewel are three early varieties which produced more fruit up to August 10 than 

 those in the table of earliest. The reason they were not included is that they did not 

 produce as much ripe fruit before August 10 as some of the others, and hence could 

 not be considered quite as early. The Dominion Day and Chalk's Early Jewel were, 

 however, among the earliest six in 1904. 



Owing to the cloudy, showery and comparatively cool summer the yields are not 

 as large as they have been in more favourable seasons. The seed was sown in hot- 

 beds on March 29, and the plants pricked out into strawberry boxes on April 25, and 

 kept in a cold frame until June 7, when they were planted in the open air. They were 



