260 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



REPORT OF THE SECTION OF HORTICULTURE. 



To the Director: 



Sir: — I beg to submit the following report on the investigational ac- 

 tivities of the Department of Horticulture for the year ending June 

 30, 1923: 



In a general way it may be stated that work has been prosecuted and 

 definite progress made on each and every one of the projects on which 

 the Department was engaged at the beginning of the year. No one 

 project has been carried through to completion, though work on certain 

 aspects of several projects is nearing completion and probably will be 

 finished within the coming year. 



Special Bulletin 118 on Pruning Fruit Trees, by R. E. Marshall, has 

 been issued during the year and brings together much general informa- 

 tion on the subject as well as reporting on certain aspects of our prun- 

 ing project. Judging by the demand for it, it is meeting a real need in 

 the State. 



Special Bulletin 121 on Grape Production in Michigan, by N. L. 

 Partridge, is a popular treatise on grape growing and is meeting a wide- 

 spread demand for information on that subject. It serves as a progress 

 report on certain aspects of our grape investigations. 



Bulletin 262 on Suggestions on Planting Orchards has been revised 

 by R. E. Marshall and reprinted. ' 



Enlargement of the staff of the Department has made possible a much 

 greater amount of work on certain of the Station's projects, particularly 

 those dealing with the use of fertilizers in the orchard and on small 

 fruits, orchard spraying, testing different strains of vegetable varieties, 

 and vegetable seed improvement. 



New Station projects approved and started during the year include 

 the following: (1) Cherry orchard nutrition studies; (2) Studies in 

 orchard economics; (3) Baldwin fruit spot investigations; (4) Studies 

 in the nutrition of cabbage. 



Work at both the Graham and South Haven experimental sub-stations 

 has followed the established lines for those stations — cultural plot in- 

 vestigations at the Graham station and variety trials and breeding work 

 at the South Haven station. The cultural plots at the Graham Station 

 are proving of great interest to many visitors and are beginning to yield 

 results of real value. At the iSouth Haven Station much work has been 

 done with peach varieties and a manuscript prepared on "An Analysis 

 of the Peach Variety Question in Michigan." It is expected that this 

 will be published at an early date. The work at the South Haven 

 Station this season has branched out to include a comprehensive study 

 of the relation of dift'erent methods of pruning to the yields and bearing 

 habits of the black and red raspberries. Mention should also be made 

 of the fact that there is being assembled at the South Haven Station 

 an extensive collection of yellow-fleshed cling peaches promising for the 

 canning trade and a collection of the improved and named varieties of 



