4G STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



bility, from a year to five years. Possibly the ra])id failure of some letter- 

 ing may be due to the presence of a little aciil left in the galvanizing pro- 

 cess. Sets of labels were lettered with coach or carriage paint, Eureka 

 bicycle enamel, and lampblack, mixed with boiled linseed oil. The last 

 kind of jjaint here named was the most enduring. Another test was made 

 by placing a thin coat of paraffin over the label after it had been lettered, 

 to find, after a year or more, some of the parafHn scaled off, some blackened 

 by fungus. Another test was made by coating a label with spar varnish, 

 to find in a year or two, the varnish cracking off. Still another test was 

 matle by i)lacing two very thin coats of boiled linscetl oil over the label, 

 the first coat being well dried before applying the second. Of all the tests 

 made, labels painted with lampblack and boiled linseed oil and then cov- 

 cretl with two coats of this oil, were the most satisfactory. 



Very few persons pay any attention to the labels by the plants, but some 

 complain if everything is not labelled. In most cases the common name 

 appears with the scientific name, if the jjlant has any common name of 

 any definite significance. Plants arc usually arranged by families, as before 

 mentioned, and a tall, general label is })laced in each bed. These general 

 labels or family labels set forth the uses of some of the plants with their 

 common names. 



I am making a few inexpensive experiments, one of which is a test of 

 seedlings of a number of jjeculiar plants of Rudbeckia hirta L., often known 

 as Black-Eyed Susan. The ray flowers of one plant in some instances 

 were six inches from tip to tip on the head. 



Considerable pains is taken to transplant from outside the garden anything 

 that shows some marked peculiarity, especially when it is more ornamental 

 than the ordinary plants of the species. I have twelve of the best varie- 

 ties of Timothy, obtained of Prof. A. D. Hopkins, formerly connected with 

 the Experiment Station of West Virginia. One of these varieties flowers as 

 earh' as early red clover, but lacks vigor and size. For three years I have 

 grown seedlings from the strongest of the early plants, weeding out the 

 weakest from time to time. I now have a hundred of the strongest of the 

 last generation, from which I shall select, at time of flowering next May or 

 June. In like manner, I am selecting and testing nine sorts of orchard 

 grass, four of meadow foxtail, three of sweet vernal. Some of these tests 

 should be of value to the farmer and horticulturist of this state. They 

 are certainly of interest to all who see and understand them, especially so 

 to the director of the garden. 



PLANTS AND OTHER FEATURES MOST ADMIRED. 



First must be included the i)ink water-lily and perhaps the large white 

 European water-lily, and, in season, the wikl rice in the pond, where it 

 grows to twelve feet high. 



In early spring, the crocus, hyacinths, tulips, harbinger of spring, he- 

 paticas, spring beauty, trillium, adder tongues, squirrel corn, Dutchman's 

 breeches, willows, and the young growth of large numl)ers of shrubs, such 

 as lilacs, honey-suckles, spiraeas, and young ferns, not omitting the green 

 grass of the paths, which is l)right because it had been closely mowed the 

 previous year. 



In general, everything considered, the garden is most attractive in July 

 and August. It i^cems a great pity that <mr students in botany cannot be 



