FIELD CROPS. 533 



In a test of S varieties whicli averaged 13.6 per cent of smutted lieads New- 

 Danish Wiiite appeared most resistant, with only 8 per cent smutted. Tables 

 indicate the average yields secured from varieties that have been under test for 

 periods of from 2 to 20 j'ears, and give descriptions of 24 varieties. 



Three years' cooperative tests of w'inter outs have resulted in failures in every 

 county included in the test except for one report each from the counties of York 

 and Chester. The author concludes " that winter oats are not adapted to Penn- 

 sylvania conditions, although in mild winters they may succeed in the south- 

 eastern portion of the State." 



Field peas on a Palouse wheat farm, G. Severance ( Washington Sta. Popvr 

 lar Bui. 36, pp. J/, fig. J). — A general discussion of field peas under Washington 

 conditions and directions for growling and harvesting the crop accompany a 

 statement of the results of cooperative trials of seed distributed from demon- 

 stration trains. 



Peas have been grown on the station farm every year since its establishment. 

 The yields for which records have been kept range from 3.3 tons of cured hay 

 per acre from Marrowfat peas and 4.2 tons from Canada field peas, and the 

 grain yields from 9.3 bu. per acre of Canada field peas in 1909 to 38.5 bu. in 

 1903 of the same variety. The yield of 4.2 tons of hay per acre was secured on 

 a rich north slope. 



Productiveness and degeneracy of the Irish potato, C. L. Fitch (Colorado 

 Sta. Bui. no, pp. 16, figs. 8). — The author submits in this bulletin preliminary 

 studies mostly w'ithin the Pearl variety, but he believes " that the principles 

 true of one variety will be fundamental to all varieties of Irish potatoes." 

 He indicates that certain plant and tuber characteristics are correlated and 

 that the tuber and its parts are analogous to the stem and its parts, as shown by 

 drawings of a tuber, an aerial tuber, and a plant stem. Early dryness, close 

 and deep cultivation, and disease are indicated factors of the tendency toward 

 seed bearing. " Tuber productiveness in Pearls is inversely proportionate to 

 the sexual development of the plant." 



The author describes 5 types or stages of I'earl vine degeneracy and states 

 the tendency of each to appear under various local conditions. The same lot 

 of seed from Del Norte produced only the better types when planted at Car- 

 bondale in 1910, but produced also the poorer types the same year at Greeley. 

 Four year's hill selection at Greeley indicated that sexual tendencies are 

 stronger than selection, as long, cylindrical and irregular shaped tubers and 

 tendency to seed-bearing appeared in spite of selection to prevent these phe- 

 nomena. Change from region to region or from farm to farm, if not to a 

 richer soil, retards this development, thus maintaining to a degree the good 

 tuber shape. " We find, however, that constant change may hold in susi^ension 

 for several years the tendency to seed bearing and tuber degeneracy, which 

 may then come suddenly on return to less favorable conditions, or on being 

 grown for a second year on the same ground." 



The author judges that incomplete fertilization is characteristic of the 

 hybrid in Colorado of Rural pollen and of the pollen from the Early Rose 

 family as 650 seed balls of this hybrid contained no seeds. Of 7 seed balls 

 saved from crosses of Pearl and Rural at Del Norte 1 of Rural pollen on 

 Pearl contained no seeds, while the 6 of Pearl pollen on Rural all contained 

 abundant seeds. 



The author defines the term "balance" "as the proper relative growth of~ 

 the main stem, branches, and leaves and the proper relative influence indi- 

 cated by aerial tubers to be exercised by each upon the shape of tubers formed 

 by the swelling of underground stems." 



