108 t EXPERTMKXT STATION RECORD. 



tutiis of rye, wheat, barley, oats, t-oni. millet, anil rice. Detailed eultiiral 

 directions for eaeli erop are presented. 



Principal crops of the world. < ►. Wakiiuko and J. E. Van Somkken Bkand 

 {hiilhiriijlanzcit dcr Wcltirirt.schaft. Lcipsir [I'JOH], pi). XIV+/,11, pis. 1.1, 

 fi(i.s. li.'t.i). — Discussions of the following crops are presented: Rice, wheat, 

 maize, sugar, graiJes, coftee, tea. cacao, tobacco, and cotton. 



HORTICULTURE. 



Ninth report of the Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm, Dukk of Bedford 

 and S. V. I'u kkking (Woburn Ejpt. Fruit Farm Rpt., .9 (1908), pp. Vo + XLVll, 

 pis. 6). — An account is given of an extensive series of exiieriments on methods 

 of planting fruit trees which were conducted with the view of verifying the 

 results secured by the authors along this line for the 10 years prior to 1905 

 (E. S. K., 17, p. 559), and in which the majority of the evidence went to show 

 that trees which were carelessly planted, that is, planted with the roots just 

 as they happened to come, into holes too small for them, filling in the dirt 

 without working it around the roots and severely packing it, gave a more 

 vigorous tree growth at the end of 3 or 4 years than trees carefully planted 

 according to accepted methods. With the view of making the experiments 

 sutliciently numerous to render the results accurate, 2,000 trees, planted by 

 some 10 different hands in 17 different localities and in 8 different counties, 

 were included in the work. The trees were for the most part dwarf apples, 

 though some plums and bush fruits were used. The lesults secured in the 

 various experiments are tabulated and fully discussed. 



An appendix to this report consists of the following papers by S. U. Picker- 

 ing, which are elsewhere noted from another source: Studies on Germination 

 and Plant Growth (E. S. R., 20, p. 737) ; The Action of Heat and Antiseptics 

 on Soils (p. lt>l.")). 



In the comparative test of orthodox and careless methods of planting the 

 trees the ramming process was very severe. The tree, with the roots just as 

 they happened to come, was set in a shallow hole. The bole was then filled 

 up and the earth thoroughly puddled with a heavy rammer until the whole 

 mass " shook like jelly at each stroke." A shovelful of loose earth was thrown 

 over the surface so as to render hoeing possible. Both rammed and unrammed 

 trees were hoed and kept free from weeds. The ground about the rammed 

 trees remained quite hard for the 12 months following the planting and could 

 be distinguished even during the second and third years. 



Sunnning up the evidence obtained during the first 2 years from these recent 

 experiments, it was found that although the ramming appeared to check the 

 growth of the tree during the early part of the first season about 40 per cent 

 more new wood was formed with the rammed trees during the first year after 

 planting than when the trees were planted carefully. There was a still greater 

 increase of new wood during the second year, but with some of the trees ex- 

 amined during the third season the excess rate of growth appeared to be 

 slackening. The excess of branch formation is attributed to a similar excess 

 of root foi'mation. The actual shoots on the rammed trees were thicker than 

 on the unrannned trees. 



The authors advance the opinion that the foi'm of planting which aims at 

 avoiding all injury to the roots is really the one which should be designated 

 as bad practice, since the object to be sought in planting a tree is to secure 

 the development of fresh rootlets from the main roots rather than to pi-eserve 

 existing fibrous roots, which, having lost their tips, are of little value to the 

 tree. Ramming the soil hastens the development of adventitious roots by 



