506 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



which blossomed up to August 25 ripened the seed. The others and the black 

 seeded or African variety did not ripen. 



Double Chrysanthemum averaged 8 feet high blossomed September 2 and did 

 not ripen. The varieties were planted May 16, and as the plot was shaded on the 

 west side by the timber, and proved to be too wet the plants were still weak at 

 the end of June. 



Nasturtium. The Dwarf variety was tested, being planted June 20. The 

 gorgeously colored blossoms remained conspicuous from August 16 to September 

 22. 



Chamomile. The variety Anthemis nobilis was planted May 23. The plants 

 resemble the common May weed, but are more spreading and the leaves being more 

 finely divided and pleasantly strong scented. The blossoms with golden yellow 

 centers and drooping white rays are used as a household remedy for colds or 

 fever. The plants are slow* growing but quite hardy. 



Honey Anchuse (Anchusa Italica Retz) planted in 1903 is unsurpassed for hardi- 

 ness. The plants started to blossom May 29, the stout flowering stalks reaching 

 a height of 5\-> feet and being covered with great masses of the showy blue flow- 

 ers until late in November. Humming birds and hordes of honey gathering 

 insects were working on the blossoms throughout the season. If the plants are 

 adapted as well for honey bees, it would be hard to imagine anything equal, much 

 less superior, as a honey plant. 



Anchusa Capenis was planted June 20 and blossomed August 25. Turned out 

 to be the same as the last. 



Borage (Borago officinalis) name supposed to be a corruption of corago, from 

 imagined cordial properties. The mucilagenous plants are used in some parts of 

 Europe as demulcent and diaphoretic. Planted June 20 and blossomed August 8. 

 The plants are very hardy, useful as a honey plant and ornamental while carry- 

 ing the loosely racemed handsome blue flowers. 



Phacelia, Tansy leaved (Phacelia bipinnatifida) planted June 21 and blossomed 

 August 11. Sold as a honey plant and ought to prove valuable as such. Very 

 hardy and ornamental. The leaves have a fern like appearance, are pale green 

 with the tips and upper parts of the stems frequently purple colored, while the 

 tall flowering stalks are heavily loaded with long, loose and inwardly curving 

 racemes profusely covered with lavender blue flowers. 



Siberian Dragonhead, a partly identified species of Dracocephalum, planted June 

 21 and blossomed August 22. Sold like the last as a honey plant, and ought to 

 prove equally valuable, judging frorn the continuous work of many species of 

 honey gathering insects. Nearly as hardy as the last. 



STEAWBEBRIES AND SJI^VLL FRUIT. 



For strawberries, the forepart of the season was almost perfect, and the large 

 yield of the varieties would have been still larger had it not been for the hot July 

 weather which shortened the picking season by prematurely ripening the fruit. 

 At the beginning of the season, the plots on sandy loam were enlarged and an 

 additional row of each variety not heretofore tested on the dryer soil was added. 

 The rows set out in 1902 were cultivated twice and mulched with clean straw 

 shortly after beginning to blossom. At the end of the picking season the mulch 

 was removed and stored away, and the plants were given three more cultivations. 

 Owing to the plants being in matted rows, hand weeding was rendered necessary 

 once before and once after picking time. The plants were not sprayed, and most 

 of the varieties showed the damage from rust which seems to be more effective 

 on the dryer ground. As during the preceding season, the damage from cedar 

 birds was merely limited by the scarcity of the birds, the damage being mainly 

 felt owing to the small size of these plots. The few birds which are seen, seem 

 to feed exclusively upon fruit, and destroy several times more than the amount 

 which they eat. On the other hand robins are fortunately very numerous on the 

 Station grounds, and careful observations together with a sense of justice compels 

 the statement that their damage is restricted to the gathering of the seed from 

 a few berries, and this only at a time when their young begin to feather out. 

 This self appropriated and partial compensation, by the selfish termed a mis- 

 demeanor, is at least justifiable, for weed seeds at that time of year are extremely 

 scarce, hence necessity rather than choice, compels the partial diet of berry seeds. 

 After observing the worst infestation of cut worms ever witnessed, and the great 



