448 



ture, and economy of construction, are discussed. The last-meutioued 

 point is enforced by a table showing the total outside surface, floor 

 space, cubical contents, and animal accommodations of the buildings 

 on three farms in Wisconsin, as compared with this cylindrical barn. 



Prevention of apple scab, E. S. G-off (pp. 193-201, illus- 

 trated). — A reprint of Bulletin No. 23 of the station (See Experiment 

 Station Record, Vol. II, p. 134). 



Comparative vitality of hulled and unhulled timothy 

 SEED, E. S. GoFF (pp. 202-204). — In threshing timothy seed the hulls 

 of from 5 to 50 per cent of the seeds are removed. To get light on the 

 question, whether the vitality of the seed was impaired by its being 

 hulled, germination tests with the Geneva seed tester were made at 

 the station with samples of hulled and unhulled seeds of various ages 

 (1880-89). The details of the test are given in a table in the ai^pendix 

 to the report (p. 267) and are summarized in this article. In every case 

 the percentage of hulled seeds which germiuated was greater than that 

 of the unhulled seeds. And it appeared that the hulled seeds did not 

 retain their vitality as long as the unhulled. " Whereas in the 1889 

 seed, 91 of the hulled seeds germinated to every 100 of the unhulled ; 

 in the 1880 seed, only 34 of the hulled seeds germinated to 100 of the 

 unhulled." Incidentally, this experiment indicates that timothy seed 

 may be fairly reliable up to 5 years of age, and after that deteriorate 

 very rapidly. It was also observed that the time required for germi- 

 nation increased with the age of the seed. An experiment with a 

 view to producing a hulless variety of timothy seed is to be undertaken 

 at the station. 



Potatoes, variety test and other experiments, E. S. Goff 

 (pp. 205-213 and 268-273). — This includes articles on a test of varieties 

 and on methods of planting, reprinted from Bulletin No. 22 of the sta- 

 tion (See Experiment Station Record, Vol. II, p. 30), with the addition 

 of tabulated data giving the details of the experiments. There are also 

 reports on experiments in hill vs. drill planting, and the sprinkling of 

 cuttings with land plaster. In the former two tubers or cuttings in a 

 place, i)lanted in hills 38 by 38 inches apart, were compared with one 

 in a place, planted in drills 38 by 19 inches. "Single eyes, two-eye cut- 

 tings, half potatoes and whole potatoes were used. Ten duplicate series 

 of eight rows each were planted, the experiment including eighty rows, 

 each 50 feet long. The average merchantable yields of the ten series in 

 bushels per acre are summarized in a short table, the complete data 

 being printed in the appendix. * * * in two cases the hills gave 

 the larger yields; in one, the drills; while in one the yields were practi- 

 cally the same. The unusually dry season would seem to have affected 

 the hills more injuriously than the drills, as the roots of the hill plants 

 may be supposed to have been less evenly distributed in the soil. This 

 fact may give the more weight to the results. At any rate the conclu- 

 sion is warrantable that, under the conditions, no loss of yield followed 

 planting in hills." 



