Department of Horticulture. 59 



Messrs, Burritt, Alderman and Anderson. About nine hundred orchards 

 were surveyed. 



During the college year and the summer vacation, several addresses 

 were given at fruit meetings in various parts of the State. 



C. S. WILSON, 



Pomology. 



Publications and Other Investigations. 



Peonies. — The studies commenced on the peony in co-operation with 

 the American Peony Society four years ago have been continued. A check 

 list containing the names and citations of some two thousand references 

 was published as a preliminary step, and this has been followed by a 

 bulletin describing the leading varieties. This work has been done under 

 the writer's direction, first by Mr. J. E. Coit and later by Mr. L. D. 

 Batchelor. 



Beans. — A varietal and monographic study of beans has been in 

 progress in the Department of Horticulture for several years. An im- 

 portant step in the work is m.arked by the preparation for publication, by 

 Mr. C. D. Jarvis, of a monograph which classifies and describes practically 

 all varieties of cultivated garden beans. 



Black-rot of the grape. — A bulletin on this important question, prepared 

 by Professor Wilson and Mr. Reddick and giving the results of experi- 

 ments of black-rot, was published. 



The department also assisted in the preparation of a bulletin giving 

 general direction for the prevention of plant diseases and injurious insects. 



Surveys of New York Orchards. 



It seems opportune at this time to present something in the nature of a 

 historical statement regarding the development of the Cornell orchard 

 survey movement. It is also proper to explain that the orchard survey 

 as at present conducted combines the features of a census and those of a 

 biological study. In this it differs radically from anything of the kind 

 previously attempted. It is also proper to say that the present orchard 

 examination was foreshadowed by the series of extension bulletins on 

 orcharding in Western New York prepared by Dean L. H. Bailey, when 

 professor of horticulture, between 1894 and 1896. The first serious and 

 comprehensive effort, however, to make a critical census and examination 

 of conditions of apple-orcharding occurred in 1903 when the writer began 

 the survey of Wayne county. The field work was done by Dr. G. F. 

 Warren, then a graduate student in the Department of Plorticulture. The 

 work in the near-by county of Orleans was taken up the following year 

 (1904) by the department, when Mr. Warren was assisted by Mr. C. A. 

 Bues. The next year, at the earnest solicitation of the Niagara county 

 fruit-growers, a similar examination of this county was begun. In this 



