BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 145 



16 feet 8 inches. The entire plat in 1914 averaged 9 feet 11 inches 

 in total height and 4 feet 5 inches to alternate branches. In 1915 the 

 average in total height was 12 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 9 inches to 

 alternate branches. The marked improvement in the plants, espe- 

 cially in the uniform type with long internodes, indicated by the in- 

 creased height to alternate branches, warrants a distinctive name. 

 It is called " Kymington," indicating Kentucky seed improved by 

 selection in Minnesota and Washington. 



Dates. — The date-breeding work which has been under way for 

 the past 10 years at the Government date garden, Indio, Cal., has 

 been given new impetus by the prohibition of all further export of 

 date offshoots from the French possessions in North Africa, the source 

 of the finest commercial varieties up to the present time. As the 

 war conditions have made it impracticable to import from other 

 regions, all importations of date offshoots from abroad have ceased. 

 Many new seedling date varieties are being originated in America, 

 some of which are apparently equal to the finest that have resulted 

 from 3,000 years of date culture in the Old World. 



Fruit improvement through bud selection. — The work of keep- 

 ing performance records of select trees of the Washington Navel 

 and Valencia oranges, Eureka, Lisbon, and Villa Franca lemons, 

 Marsh grapefruit, and Dancy tangerine has been continued during 

 the year. Deciduous-fruit performance records on select trees of 

 Carman, Elberta, Hale, and Belle peaches and Baldwin, Ben Davis, 

 and Northern Spy apples have also been kept. In addition to 

 these records, a tree census has been obtained, showing the conditions 

 of established commercial orchards in regard to the uniformity of 

 type of trees and fruits borne by such trees. More than 200,000 

 select fruit-bearing buds from citrus trees with known performance 

 records have been placed in the hands of cooperators who are to 

 permit the department to secure progeny records from the trees so 

 propagated. These buds are not only for the propagation of nursery 

 stock, but in many cases for the top-working of unprofitable trees 

 in established plantations. Recently, in cooperation with the Cali- 

 fornia Fruit Growers' Exchange, a systematic campaign has been 

 undertaken to eliminate all of the inferior strains of grapefruit in 

 California by top- working trees of such strains with select buds from 

 trees of the Marsh variety with known performance records, thus 

 reducing the grapefruit production of the State practically to the 

 basis of a single variety. Each year sees an increase in the number of 

 citrus growers in California who adopt the commercial tree per- 

 formance record system for locating trees of unprofitable character, 

 either because they bear little fruit or because they bear fruit of a 

 strain not well suited to commercial use. A second commercial 

 nursery has been established during the year in California for the 

 purpose of propagating trees from wood borne by record individuals. 



Irish-potato investigations. — The potato investigations are con- 

 ducted chiefly at Presque Isle, Me.; Greeley, Colo.; Jerome, Idaho; 

 and Norfolk, Va. One of the main features of the work is the 

 development, from seed, of new varieties of potatoes specially suited 

 for certain purposes and adapted to the special growing regions in 



