]!»20] HORTICULTURE. 147 



colorinj,' of licrrios picked preoii. Iumko f;i-»H>n in* partly coloretl fruit in pMrticu- 

 liir should ho stored and shipped in ventilated containers. 



In view of tlie frequent recommendation that cranberries should he stored 

 in water to keen them a Ions time, a number of tests were conducted alonj,' this 

 line. Tlie results indicate that most of the berries tlius stored soon soften from 

 smothering, somewhat more spoilage occurring among the green than among 

 the ripe berries. In the work conducted during 1918, ungraded fruit apparently 

 kept better tlian graded fruit, thereby contradicting the results of experiments 

 previously reported. Admixtures of cranberry leaves or of decayed berries 

 with "the stored fruit tended to promote decay. In a test of two different types 

 of separators, tlie amount of mechanical injury was practically the same. In 

 .some shipping tests in which barrels were compared with crates as containers, 

 the results were somewhat in favor of shipping in crates. Cranberries shipped 

 without being run through a separator reached the market in a better condition 

 than lots separated before shipment. 



The experience for 1918 with two plats on the station bog that have not been 

 sanded since the fall of 1909 is presented in tabular form and compared with 

 previous years. Since 1915 their average productiveness has fallen distinctly 

 below that of their checks. For the past three years the vines have been much 

 thinner than those of the surrounding bog. The yields and relative keeping 

 quality of berries grown on the different fertilizer plats in 1917 and 1918 are 

 tabuTated. These data are further compared with results of previous years 

 since 1911. The experience with these plats as a whole indicates that the 

 advantage of any slight increase in yield that may have been caused by the 

 fertilizers has been much more than balanced by the cost of the treatment, 

 the deterioration in the quality of the fruit, the greater cost of picking due to 

 the increased vine growth, jind the incursion of weeds. 



The preliminary work in blueberry culture was somewhat extended, and a 

 nunrfjer of swamp bushes selected for the quantity and quality of fruit they 

 b<jre were brought into the station plantation. Buds of selected strains devel- 

 oped by F. V. Coville, of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, were inserted on a number of the bushes. 



Work with Vitis rotundilolia, a species of muscadine grapes, H. 1'. 

 Stuckky {Gcxjrgia fila. Bnl. 133 {1919), pp. 62-74, P^s. //, figs. J).— This com- 

 prises a prelinunary report of investigations with V. rot iindi folia that have 

 been under way at the station since 1909. The practical phases of the work 

 and some of the more outstanding points of the breeding investigations are here 

 discussed, and citations are given to similar studies by other investigators. 



In conformity with previous results the author found that practically all 

 varieties of this class of grapes are self-sterile. During the last three years 

 an effort has been made to determine the underlying causes of self-storility 

 through a study of microspore development. Briefly summarized, it was found 

 that the pollen from staniinate vines develops in a normal way, while that from 

 pistillate or fruitful vines develop in a normal way until the pollen grains 

 are well formed, at which time there is a degeneration of the generative nuclei. 

 Thus far the only positive distinction known between the male and the female 

 vines is the difference between the flowers of the two vines. The female vines 

 produce flowers with short and usually recurved stamens and well-developed 

 ovules. The male vines produce flowers with long, upright stanrens, having 

 large anthers, and with inconspicuous and aborted ovules. The nrale vines bear 

 no fruit at all. Since the work was begun more than two thousand seedling 

 vines resulting from various crosses have been brought into bearing, and 

 approximately oue-half male and one-half females have occurred in all the 

 plantings. 



I 



