HORTICULTURE. 309 



0.3338 per cent of asli, ealenlated free from carbonic acid. The com- 

 position of watermelon ash is as follows : 



Per cent. 



Suljjliuric acid 4. 41 



Calcium Dxid 5.54 



^f agnt'siiiiu oxid 6. 74 



Potassium oxid 61. 18 



Sodium oxid 4. 31 



Silicon dioxid 2. 15 



Pbosplioric acid 10. 25 



Chloriu 4. 94 



Iron sesquioxid .48 



Total 100.00 



On this basis the anthor calculates that a crop of melons weighing 

 39,766 lbs. per acre, "which is an unusually large one," would take from 

 the soil 81.09 lbs. of potash and 13.59 lbs. of phosphoric acid. This 

 would be replaced by 100 lbs. of acid i^hosphate, containing 13 per cent 

 of phosphoric acid, and 160 lbs. of muriate of potash. One-half a oar 

 load of melons per acre, or about one-third of the above crop, is said 

 to be a fair crop on good land. 



Flowering and fertilization of native plums, E. S. Goff ( Wis- 

 consin Sta. Kpt. 1894, pp. 347-350). — The native plums are very uncer- 

 tain in fruitage and the author made a careful study of the tlowers 

 of the varieties of plums growing at the station in the hope of discov- 

 ering some of the reasons for the failure of the blossoms to produce 

 fruit. Thirty-four varieties were examined and it was found that the 

 native species had decidedly more slender styles and smaller stigmas 

 than those of the European plum, and that these slender styles were 

 often broken or bent by rain. The author thinks, however, that this 

 would not be likely to cause failure in pollination, since all varieties 

 appear to i)roduce abundant pollen, the anthers of the same flower 

 rarely mature at the same time, and the flowers on a given tree usually 

 have a range of several days in time of opening. 



The percentage of i^erfect pistils found varied from 29 in the More- 

 man plum to 100 in the White Nicholas. The proportion of flowers 

 that formed fruits in the different varieties corresponded with the per- 

 centage of perfect flowers, but by the time the plums had grown to 

 the size of an apple seed or a little larger a large proportion of them 

 dropped from the trees of some varieties having a high percentage of 

 perfect flowers. "The dropping of the miniature fruits was sometimes 

 most marked in the varieties that ai)parent]y possessed the most robust 

 pistils." White Nicholas blossomed freely and had 100 per cent of 

 perfect pistils, but only two or three fruits grew to maturity. 



"These observations indicate that the failure of blossoms to set fruit 

 in our native plums is probably due to more than one cause, and that 

 while they do not show that the failure is never due to a lack of pollen 

 8708— No. 4 4 



