206 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



raercial orcharding or gardening on their own account, to manage or 

 chards for others and judge fruits and vegetables at county fairs and 

 the like. A large number of students, upon graduating from the school, 

 have returned to their homes and made their father's as well as their 

 own orchards return much larger dividends. They have also been a 

 help to the Experiment Station in securing data, and they are always 

 more deeply interested in the subject. 



If a student cares to go into the subject deeper than the instructor 

 goes in the class room he will be given any number of references to 

 books and bulletins which may be found in the library and bulletin 

 room. However, if a person wishes to specialize along some branch of 

 horticulture, he had better enter the University proper, where the sub- 

 ject and allied subjects are dealt with more deeply and scientifically. 



The horticultural department is crowded very much at present, but 

 it will be located on the second floor of a new brick building on the 

 site of the present Horticultural Hall, in about a year. It is hoped that 

 there will be plenty of room then and that the laboratory equipment 

 will meet the needs of the students as well as the department. 



BRIEF SURVEY OF HORTICULTURAL WORK OF SEASON AT THE 

 NEBRASKA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



V. V. WESTGATE. 



The horticultural work at the Experiment Station has been more or 

 less handicapped this season by a lack of rainfall. However, in the case 

 of some of the special experiments artificial watering was resorted to, 

 so that most of the experiments were carried on without serious handi 

 cap. In addition to the ordinary routine work with fruits the depart- 

 ment has been carrying on some experimental spraying tests with the 

 plum. Careful sprayings were given different varieties of this fruit in 

 order to determine just what would be the effect on the curculio. Ar 

 senate of lead was the material used and the results were quite favorable, 

 although, of course, one can't generalize on the results of one season's 

 spraying. The small fruits at the station were injured by the drouth 

 and only produced a fair crop. This was especially true in the case of 

 the blackberries and raspberries as moisture was very deficient at the 

 most critical time. Currants particularly and gooseberries and straw- 

 berries produced the best among the small fruits. Some moisture testa 

 in connection with raspberries have been carried on this summer, which 

 will be continued during the winter. The idea of such experiments is to 

 help determine the relation of the soil moisture content to winter killing. 

 Some of the raspberries were protected so that they received practically 

 no water during summer. In another plat the normal rainfall was re- 

 ceived and in a third plot heavy artificial watering was resorted to. 

 During the winter the behavior of the plants under these different con- 



