318 ANNUAL, REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Disease-resistance trial work. — The disease-resistance trial 

 work with potatoes at Burlington, Vt., did not yiehl the results 

 desired, owing tc the nonappearance of "late blight." The Arlington 

 collection of named varieties of potatoes was also grown at that 

 place, together with a sufficient quantity of the Green Mountain va- 

 riety to furnish seed for the Long Island work this season. In addi- 

 tion to maintaining the collection for disease resistance, hill-selec- 

 tion work was carried on at Burlington with the Green Mountain, 

 Factor, and Up-To-Date varieties. 



The fertilizer work at all the places mentioned has been con- 

 tinued. The place-efl'ect trials are also being continued in all of the 

 States mentioned and also at Stockton, Wis. The station in New 

 York State has been changed to Honeoye Falls. 



The largest undertaking this season is the handling and planting 

 of our 20,000 seedlings. These are being grown at Honeoye Falls, 

 N. Y., as are also the most promising of the Chilean seedlings and 

 the Arlington variety collection. With but few exceptions the va- 

 rieties embraced in the variety collection are all planted on the tuber 

 unit basis. This has been done with a view to improve the type and 

 increase their uniformity in size and number of tubers. Some 7,200 

 seedlings were grown in the Arlington farm greenhouse this spring 

 and were transplanted to the flats early in May. 



The number of seeds produced in individual seed balls obtained 

 from the 1910 crosses were in most instances counted and a record 

 made of the number of plants which these seeds produced. These 

 data have so far proved very interesting, inasmuch as they afford 

 an opportunity for a study of physiological affinity or nonaffinity 

 between the different parent plants. The results thus far indicate 

 that the prevalent notion that in order to insure vigorous seedlings 

 only one or two seed balls should be allowed to develop on an indi- 

 vidual plant is a fallacy. 



The place-effect seed trials at Norfolk are proving as interesting 

 as the diversity of the regions from which the seed came might sug- 

 gest. Four diggings have been made at intervals of a week for the 

 purpose of observing such differences in earliness as may occur from 

 locality influences. 



Classification or varieties. — Extensive character studies of the 

 sprouting habits of different varieties of potatoes according to the 

 ideas of Vilmorin have been carried' out with the hope that ulti- 

 mately a system of classification and grouping of strains may be 

 brought about which will enable future plant breeders and students 

 of potatoes to work with more precision than is possible under pres- 

 ent conditions. 



While the result of the season is very clean cut, it is not con- 

 sidered safe to base extensive commercial practices on one season's 

 work; the trials will therefore be repeated before final judgment is 

 passed. 



Peanuts. — The work of introducing the peanut as a farm crop 

 in the boll-weevil district of the Southern States was started in 

 1909 with the planting of a few hundred acres by farmers in north- 

 ern Louisiana, the object being to determine the possibilities of mak- 

 ing peanut oil. This work was conducted under a cooperative 

 arrangement between the farmers and oil-mill owners and the De- 



