728 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



indicates the wide distribution of tlie work as contemplated in the 

 season's campaign. 



The tobacco investigations will be confined principally to experi- 

 ments with the Cuban filler tobacco in Alabama, the central part of 

 South Carolina, and Eastern Texas, where soils have been located 

 similar to those on which it is successfully grown. Five parties will 

 be sent into the field this season. One of these will be assigned to 

 the general charge of the work in Connecticut, with headquarters at 

 Hartford, and another will operate in Ohio. The headquarters for the 

 Cuban tobacco work will be in eastern Texas, where a party of six 

 will be located. Smaller parties will be in charge of the work in 

 Perry County, Ala., and Darlington County, S. C. The work will 

 be largely cooperative, and will be carried on with the assistance of 

 local growers. 



The Department is to have a model school garden on its grounds the 

 coming season, as a result of the interest which has ))een aroused in 

 the normal school of the District. 



The horticulturist. Prof. L. C. Corbett, of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, gave a course of lectures at the school on plant propagation 

 and garden work in the winter of 1901-2, and last season the Depart- 

 ment furnished seeds and plants for about forty school gardens in the 

 District. During the past winter nearly one hundred 3'oung women 

 from the normal school have had practical instruction in plant propa- 

 gation at the Department, a .small greenhouse being set aside for the 

 purpose. The pupils did all of the work connected with the prepa- 

 ration of the soil, potting the plants, and managing the house, under 

 the inuncdiate direction of the instructor in botany in the school. 



A small piece of land on the Department grounds has been allotted 

 for the school garden, which will be conducted under the direction of 

 several of the pupils who have had instruction the past winter. This 

 tract will be divided up into miniature vegetable and flower gardens, 

 to be worked by pupils from a school near by, small prizes being pro- 

 vided by the instructor in botany in the normal school. 



Collections of vegetable and flower seeds for gardens have been sent 

 out to several hundred schools which have requested them, and a large 

 number of calls have been received from village improvement societies 

 and similar organizations. The latter it has been impossible to meet, 

 unfortunately, out of the quota of seeds placed at the disposal of the 

 Secretary. 



These facts are further indication of the wide interest which is felt 

 or can be aroused in these matters by a little effort and encourage- 

 ment, especially when the encouragement comes in the practical form 

 of providing the wherewithal and the directions for making a 

 beginning. 



