G46 EXPEKIMENT STATION RECORD. 



cherries and apples, and varieties of aphis-resistant apples have been imported from 

 Australia. Grapes are practically a failure at the station. 



In a test of root pruning orchard trees 24 yearling trees were set out in one row, 

 each alternate tree being root pruned according to the Stringfellow system, while 

 the others were root pruned and the tops cut back 30 in. After 2 years the author 

 states it was impossible to select one set of trees from the other except l)y taking 

 note of the place of union of new growth. Two trees set out at the same time with- 

 out either top or root pruning presented a very unthrifty appearance in comparison 

 with the pruned trees. 



In the case of whole and piece root grafting with Summer Wafer apples, the whole 

 root and top cut gave considerably better growth than when the scions were grafted 

 on the bottom cut. As between the whole root and top cut there ajipeared to be a 

 slight advantage in favor of the former. 



Quality of nourishment determines flower-bud production, J. M. W. Kitchen 

 {Amer. Gard., 22 {1901), No. 338, p. 427).— The author believes that the flower bud 

 of the apple or any other flower bud has its origin whenever the vegetable cell 

 which starts a new growth receives a sufficient supply ot adequately elaborated sap 

 as nourishment. A supply of unelaborated sap tends to wood growth. But when 

 this sap has been elaborated in the leaves and reaches newly starting growths "its 

 special richness in carbonaceous elements and its comparative lack of nitrogenous 

 matter has the effect of modifying the growth from leaf forms to flower forms." 

 The kind and amount of nourishment which a cell receives is governed, among 

 others, by the following conditions: "The location of the embryo cell on the jjlant; 

 the density and size of the wood tissue conducting sap from the roots; decrease of 

 root absorption following loss of roots and coldness and dryness of the soil; relative 

 high atmospheric temperature conducing superactivity of metabolic processes in the 

 leaves and distance from the roots with intervention of a large area of leafage 

 between the root and the flowering point." 



The teaching of orchard fruit culture in the nineteenth century, Guillochon 

 {Jovr. Soc. Nat. Hort. France, 4. ser., 2 [1901), Apr., pp. 34S-363).—A horticultural 

 review of the development of horticultural societies and horticultural literature 

 with reference to fruit-tree culture in France during the nineteenth century. The 

 work includes a bibliography of the publications on orchard fruits, in the French 

 language, since 1850. 



Propagating nevr varieties of tree fruits from seed, C. G. Patten {Amer. 

 Gard., 22 {1901), No. 335, pp. 379, 380; Nat. Nurm'iiman, 9 {1901), No. 6, pp. 197, 

 198) . — The author holds that innumerable and serious mistakes have been made all 

 over the Northwest in an endeavor to mingle the little Siberian with our cultivated 

 apple. This he considers a violent cross which is not nearly so likely to result 

 favoraljly as would be the planting of seeds from the most highly developed fruits 

 that we now have, or by using seed obtained from crosses of these varieties. It is 

 believed that the Concord and Worden grapes, Ben Davis, Winesap, Fameuse, 

 Duchess, Wealthy, and the Patten Greening apples, and the Richmond cherry are 

 the most highly developed forms of fruit we now have. In improving fruits from 

 seed, therefore, it is seed from these varieties rather than from the small, worthless 

 varieties which have not been developed at all that should be used. 



Experimental fruit culture at Wye College {Gard. Chron., 3. ser., 29 {1901), 

 No. 752, 2)p. 332, ^^5).— Experiments were begun at the College in 1897 to test the 

 effect of various fertilizers on apples grown in zinc pots. Complete commercial 

 fertilizers, fertilizers containing but 2 elements, and fertilizers containing normal 

 amounts of 2 elements and the third in excess were used each year from 1897 to 

 1900, inclusive. The effect of sulphate of iron was also studied in connection with a 

 complete fertilizer. The results in 1900 show especially finely colored apples with 

 an excess of phosphate and a lack of any effect due to either the absence or excess of 

 potash. Sulphate of iron had no effect on the color of the apples. 



