EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 119 



KErORT OF THE HORTICULTURIST. 



Prof. C. D. Smith, Director: 



Sir — While a. large amount of work has been done by the Horticultural 

 Department of the Experiment Station at the College, even more atten- 

 tion has been paid to work in various parts of the State in cooperation 

 with farmers and fruit growers, and at South Haven several new lines 

 have been taken up in addition to the work that has been done in pre- 

 vious years. 



At the College the orchard and garden crops have been cared for 

 under the direction of Professor U. P. Hedrick and the note-taking was 

 done during the summer and fall by Mr. M. L. Dean, Assistant Horti- 

 culturist, up to October 1, when he resigned to take charge of the inter- 

 ests of Michigan horticulture at the St. Louis Exposition. 



Many of the apple trees which were planted in the station orchard 

 from 1890 to 1895 bore a good crop of fruit last year. Carful notes 

 were taken from them and many new varieties were photographed. 

 Good results were also obtained from many of the new varieties of 

 plums and pears, but owing to the injury from the May frost, compara- 

 tively little was secured from the cherries. 



Although the early strawberries were severely injured by the frost 

 on the night of April 30, the season was so favorable during the month 

 of May, that a very good crop was secured and a large number of the 

 kinds which fruited for the first time showed considerable value. In 

 fact, so far as new varieties were concerned, it was one of the most 

 promising collection of strawberries we have ever grown. Descriptions 

 of all the new kinds and general notes upon the older varieties of straw- 

 berries were published in a bulletin. This also included descriptive notes 

 upon new varieties of raspberries and blackberries. Large collections 

 of tomatoes and potatoes were also grown and a bulletin giving the 

 results Avas published in May. 



In addition to the variety tests of fruits and vegetables, especial at- 

 tention was paid to spraying experiments. Among others was a com- 

 parative test of liquid and dust sprays for preventing injury by insects 

 and fungi. For this purpose a gasoline sjjraying outfit was used for 

 the liquid applications and a dust sprayer made by the Kansas City 

 Dust-Spray Mfg. Co., for applying the dust. The applications were made 

 of the usual strength and in a general way the following were the re- 

 sults: The liquid applications which consisted of Bordeaux mixture 

 and arsenic were applied four times during the season and were far 

 more effective against apple scab than the dust application, even though 

 a larger number of applications were made. Fairly good results were 

 received against insects although less marked than where the liquid 

 sprays were used. This agreed very closely with what was secured at 

 South Haven Station in a similar experiment. 



Although the cost of material for a single spraying is less than when 

 liquid applications are used, the number of applications having to be 

 increased 50 per cent in order to secure satisfactory results even against 



