730 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



methods. The committee was also asked to report upon the matter of a registration 

 bureau where type descriptions of new varieties might be filed. 



Prof. J. Craig presented two papers at the meeting, one on The Value of an 

 Orchard Survey, and the other entitled Some Interrogation Points. In the intro- 

 duction to the former he referred to the skepticism with which practical fruit growers 

 regard the recommendations of scientific men with reference to orchard practices, 

 and attributed this to the very broad conclusions said to be drawn from very 

 limited experimental data. The conclusions which appeal to the practical man 

 must be founded on so broad a basis of experiment as to disarm criticism. He gave 

 some figures showing that sprayed orchards in 1903 yielded 27 bu. more of fruit 

 per acre than unsprayed. Sixty-six sprayed orchards, containing (526.25 acres, 

 yielded 280 bu. per acre, while 107 unsprayed orchards, containing 673 acres, 

 yielded 253 bu. per acre. Again, 8,430 bbl. of sprayed fruit brought an average 

 price of $2.02 per barrel, while 6,365 bbl. of unsprayed fruit sold for$1.80 per barrel. 

 The average price per bushel of 110,445 bu. of sprayed fruit was 31.8 cts., while 

 for 06,345 bu. of unsprayed fruit the price was 27.7 cts. These data are sufficiently 

 comprehensive to admit of satisfactory demonstration of the financial value of 

 spraying. Professor Craig concluded with an appeal "for the spending of a certain 

 amount of effort and time in the collecting of facts from the broad field of every- 

 day experience, in addition to the laboratory or plat type of experiments which, 

 as a rule, engrosses the major portion of our attention." 



In the second paper Professor Craig suggested a number of problems in horticul- 

 ture which need to be investigated more thoroughly in order that there may be more 

 complete and reliable information. Some of these problems were the interrelation 

 and affinities of plants, the extent to which annual applications of lime and sulphur 

 mixtures devitalize the tree, the cumulative effect of fungicides, the influence of arti- 

 ficial light in the forcing of flowers and vegetables, the means of securing definite 

 variation in plant breeding, the possibility of establishing affinity rules for guidance 

 in plant breeding, the relations of stock and scion, effect of graftage on the vigor and 

 productiveness of the plant, and the influence of the stock upon the fruit. A long 

 time will be required to answer some of these questions, and it was urged that experi- 

 ments should be started with a view to continuing them through a long period. 



X. E. Hansen described some of the breeding and selection work which he has 

 been carrying on in South Dakota for the purpose of developing a race of fruits suited 

 to the climatic conditions of that region. The work is regarded as of much promise, 

 and has resulted in a number of interesting combinations, such as the peach and the 

 nectarine with the sand cherry, and the latter also with Prunus simoni. A good illus- 

 trated account of this work was recently published in South Dakota Station Bulle- 

 tins Nos. 87 and 88 (E. S. R., 16, pp. 369, 370). 



In An Experiment on the Selection of Seed Potatoes: Productive v. Unproduc- 

 tive Hills, H. J. Eustace presented a record of the results of digging 500 hills of pota- 

 toes grown under uniform conditions, and planting the tubers from the 125 heaviest- 

 yielding hills in comparison with those from the 125 lightest-yielding hills. The 

 tubers from the heaviest-yielding hills yielded at the rate of 362 bu. per acre, and 

 from the lightest hills the yields averaged 339 bu. It was expected that the differ- 

 ence in yield would have been greater than the figures indicate. By continuing the 

 selection of seed from the heaviest-yielding hills for a series of years, it was believed 

 that the yield could be considerably increased over that obtained from seed tubers 

 selected at random. 



C. P. Close read a paper on Plant Growth by the New Cooper-Hewitt Mercury 

 Vapor Electric Light. Lettuce and radishes were the vegetables used. The bed was 

 kept in entire darkness except for the mercury-vapor electric light. The conditions 

 for growth as regards heat and moisture in the greenhouse were unfavorable during 

 the experiment, and the light was not found to be uniformly satisfactory. This kind 



