32 Director's Report of the 



was established. On Long Island, where the season is longer, the 

 seeds were planted in the field. 



As a result of the season's work it must be said that but one 

 variety in the whole list proved to be really promising, and that 

 was one of the cabbages. Mr. Allen reports that it is a variety of 

 the Flat Dutch or Drumhead type, producing a very deep and solid 

 head, a strong grower, and after a few generations grown in this 

 country would probably develop a very useful variety, particularly 

 for the South and West. The other cabbages were some of them 

 mixed, others were inferior strains of varieties already known 

 here, and the rest were not at all promising. The turnip was an 

 inferior type of ruta baga. 



Of the Russian melons which were successfully fruited one 

 ranked good in quality, eleven ranked fair to good, fifteen were 

 only fair, twenty-four were poor and thirteen ranked from poor to 

 fair or good with different specimens. Twenty-four were selected 

 as possibly worthy of further testing. Ten kinds of seed gave 

 mixed variety of melons. The record of the Asiatic melons was 

 even more discouraging than that of the Russians. They seemed 

 to be especially subject to disease, and the fruit, when any was 

 obtained, ranked far below that of American kinds which were 

 grown beside them for comparison. The Russian melons also 

 appeared to be more subject to disease than the American sorts. 

 Notwithstanding several treatments with Bordeaux mixture the 

 anthracnose did much damage, and together with the bacterial 

 disease injured many kinds so seriously as to prevent the develop- 

 ment of perfect fruit. 



Fertility of grapes. — It has been found that many varieties of 

 cultivated grapes are self -sterile; others are imperfectly self- 

 sterile, that is to say when cross pollination is prevented they 

 form clusters which are more or less imperfect; others are fully 

 self-fertile. The last class includes nearly all the varieties which 

 have proved satisfactory in commercial vineyards. 



Investigations concerning the self -sterility of grapes have been 



