82 EEPOKT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



mitted, but rather in the wide differences in abilit}^ of individuals 

 to transmit that quality. This ability is found to be a family trait, 

 some families of high production having it and others not. High 

 egg production is shown to be inherited in pure lines, within families 

 having the ability to transmit it. This faculty is the keynote to 

 breeding, and has furnished a new method of selection for high per- 

 formance, which is working out satisfactoril3\ 



The same has been discovered to be true with corn. Superiority 

 in respect to a quality is not necessarily accompanied by ability to 

 transmit that quality ; this is a family trait and, like the high quality 

 itself, is transmitted within family lines — a very significant fact to 

 be reckoned with in all breeding for improvement. 



The important question as to whether such crops as corn, oats, etc., 

 profit by the ability of legumes to assimilate the free nitrogen of the 

 air, when grown in connection with them, has at length been answered 

 in the affirmative by the New Jersey station, in an ingenious series 

 of investigations. The manner in which the interchange of material 

 takes place is a subject for further study. 



At the Cornell station it was found that the growth of a legume 

 with a nonlegume gave the latter a greater protein content than 

 when it was grown alone. The growth of alfalfa was found to in- 

 crease the nitrifying power of the soil. Both legumes and non- 

 legumes were shown to have a definite relation to the nitrogen con- 

 tent of the soil on which they were grown, the relation differing 

 with different crops. The absorption of nitrate nitrogen by wheat 

 plants grown in a rich soil was found not to be proportional to the 

 growth of the plants but to increase with a decrease in the soil 

 moisture content and consequently with a decrease in the crop. This 

 result is considered as a probable explanation of the high percentage 

 of gluten in wheat grown in semiarid regions. In studying the rela- 

 tion of lime to the growth of alfalfa it was observed that the protein 

 content of alfalfa grown on lime soil was markedly greater than that 

 grown on soil in need of lime. In these experiments the difference 

 amounted to 88 pounds of protein per ton of alfalfa hay. 



The significance of sulphur as a plant food, not heretofore taken 

 account of, is indicated by studies made at the Wisconsin station 

 with a new method of analysis. By this, grain crops, for example, 

 are found to remove nearly as much sulphur from the soil as they 

 do of phosphoric acid, Avhereas the soil supply of sulphur is far less. 



This fact must evidently be taken account of in plans for main- 

 taining fertility. 



A new disease of cucumbers and muskmelons in the greenhouse 

 was worked out at the New York State station, and its cause deter- 

 mined. The fungus has since appeared upon tomatoes both in this 

 country and in Europe. In cooperation with the Vermont station 



