HOETICULTUKE. 37 



about i well-rotted stable manure. The roots of plants grown in this soil do not 

 permeate the eoal ashes and hence are easier to transplant in the field than plants 

 grown in deep soil where the roots grow long and are likely to be mutilated in 

 taking out for transplanting. 



Tomato plants were suoeessfully grown from cuttings taken from tlie vines in the 

 fall after a crop of tomatoes had been secured. Plants thus grown were always 

 larger and stronger than plants grown from seed, ripened about 10 days earlier, and 

 the total yield to the end of the season was about 5 per cent greater. In one experi- 

 ment tomatoes were seeded in the hotbed on March 1 and again March 22. The 

 older plants made a slower, better growth in the beginning and ripened their fruit 

 from 3 to 10 days before the others. They also gave a slightly better yield. In a 

 test of growing tomato plants on land that had never been manured and on the same 

 soil heavily manured, plants on the unmanured portion of the field ripened their 

 fruit earlier, but the yield of every one of 18 varieties tested was larger on the 

 manured plat. 



As a result of a test of 18 varieties the author recommends for the vicinity of the 

 station the varieties Atlantic Prize, Spark Erliana, Trucker Favorite, Ignotum, Match- 

 less, Noble, Ponderosa, and Stone. For northern Idaho and high latitudes where 

 the season is shorter the varieties Atlantic Prize, Dwarf Champion, Spark Erliana, 

 Fordhook First, and Ignotum are recommended. Atlantic Prize is specially recom- 

 mended for the home garden. 



A cooperative experiment with tomatoes was carried out with 2 farmers living in 

 the higher regions of the State. The same varieties used were also grown at the 

 station. The ripening period at Lewiston began nearly 2 weeks earlier than at 

 Moscow and the relative rate of ripening was as 5 to 1 in favor of the higher locality. 

 A successful method of culture in one of these experiments was worked out by plow- 

 ing the, rows east and west to more than a foot in depth. The plants were then set 

 to within about 3 in. of the bottoms of the furrows and on the north side of the ridges. 

 "These furnished shade from the hot sun at midday and jirotected the moisture at 

 the roots, thus rendering each irrigation more effective and the necessity of applica- 

 tion less frequent." 



As in previous years, blight was found most prevalent on poor unfilled soils. In 

 one experiment on well-manured plats only 2 out of 80 plants blighted. In another 

 test where the land was unmanured and the plants watered sparingly during the 

 season, 30 per cent of the plants were lost by blight. On well-manured ground at 

 the station only 1 plant out of 400 was lost by blight. 



A manual of Egyptian farm crops and vegetables, G. Bonaparte ( Ghizeh: 

 School of Agriculture, 1903, pp. 81). — MetlK^ds of growing various farm crops and 

 vegetables common in Egypt are described and an account given of their uses. 



The new ideals in the improvement of plants, L. H. Bailey [Country Life in 

 America, 4 (1903), No. 3, pp. 181-185, fgs. i?l). — The new idea in plant breeding is 

 defined by the author as breeding for certain definite attributes "that will make the 

 new generation of plants more efficient for certain purposes." Thus, in corn breed- 

 ing the object is not simply to produce a new variety, but to get a variety that will 

 contain more protein or oil or starch in the grain, or that will give a heavier yield 

 per acre. The work of the Illinois Station in corn breeding is noted at some length, 

 as well as that of Professor Hays in Minnesota with wheat and corn, and that of 

 Professor Webber, of this Department, with cotton, grains, fruits, etc. 



Systematic pomology, F. A. Watgh {Trans. Ma.^sachu.^etts Hort. Soc, 1903,1, 

 pp. 51-G9). — A ])lea for the greater development of systematic pomology in this 

 country, more particularly descriptive j)omology. Forms of ])lanks used in descril)- 

 ing fruits at the Massachusetts Agricultural College and the United States Dei)artmcnt 

 of Agriculture are given, together with the rules of the Horticultural Club ()f Cornell 

 University for i)omological nomenclature. 



