BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 317 



a little has been done in the way of planting ornamental trees and 

 shrubbery. There are now growing upon the lawns about 314 de- 

 ciduous trees in 45 varieties, 318 conifers in 48 varieties, and 1,347 

 shrubs in 81 varieties. 



Of ornamental shrubbery 131 plants in 37 varieties were forwarded 

 to each of three Forest Service nurseries for propagation and coop- 

 erative work with the Bureau of Plant Industry upon forest ranges. 

 Considerable attention will be given this work in the future and 

 plants are now being propagated in the nursery for this purpose. 



HORTICULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



The horticultural investigations have been continued. Special at- 

 tention has been given to the problems of truck growers. The crops 

 which have received most time and effort are Irish potatoes, sweet 

 potatoes, tomatoes, beans, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, beets, onions, 

 and peanuts. 



Potato investigations. — The Irish potato investigations have been 

 continued by Prof. William Stuart and Mr. William V. Shear. Dur- 

 ing the year the fertilizer and rotation experiments have been con- 

 tinued at Norfolk, Va., and on Long Island. At both stations lime, 

 either alone or in combination with fertilizers, has markedly in- 

 creased the amount of scab on the tubers, but, contrary to the general 

 belief, stable manure alone has not produced a similar result. The 

 promising disease-resistant varieties of both European and American 

 origin were grown near Burlington, Vt,, in cooperation with the Ver- 

 mont Agricultural Experiment Station. Disease-resistant sorts as 

 well as the most promising sorts for general-crop and truck purposes 

 were grown in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Virginia, 

 Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and the product was then planted 

 at the Virginia Truck Experiment Station for comparison. 



PoTATt) BREEDING. — The potato-brccding work of the season of 1910 

 consisted in the growing and harvesting of a large number of seedling 

 potatoes, some 20,000 of which produced tubers. These were for 

 the most part grown from seed obtained through artificial crosses 

 made during the year 1909. The tubers produced from this large col- 

 lection of seedlings were studied during the past winter and descrip- 

 tive notes were made of the characters of the tubers from each individ- 

 ual plant. This work occupied the time of Messrs. Stuart and Shear 

 for more than two months. 



Successful crosses were made with varieties grown on the Potomac 

 Flats as well as at Burlington, Vt. Those made at Burlington set a 

 larger percentage of seed balls and produced a larger number of 

 seeds per seed ball than those at Washington. 



Fertilizer experiments, which were repeated at Norfolk and Staun- 

 ton, Va., and Mattituck (Long Island), N. Y., gave results which in 

 the main corroborated those of preceding years. 



The place-effect trial work conducted at St. Albans, Vt., Scotts- 

 ville, N. Y., Staunton, Va., Reedsville, W. Va., Traverse City, Mich., 

 and Sabin, Minn., was all quite satisfactory. A quantity of seed suffi- 

 cient for the trial at Norfolk was gathered from the varieties grown 

 at each place and this was shipped to the Arlington farm for winter 

 storage. 



