142 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



60 to 65° F. during the day, and in part under a bench in a basement. The boxes 

 used were 3x3.5 ft. wide and 1 ft. deep. The bed under the bench in the basement 

 was made by placing a plank against the legs of the bench and tilling the space 

 between thai and the wall with well-packed manure. The boxes and bed together 

 contained about 90 sq. ft. of surface and yielded at the rate of about 2 lbs. of mush- 

 rooms per square foot. The manure for the boxes and bed was composted October 

 31 and was ready for putting in the beds November 9. 



The beds were spawned November 23 and covered over with dirt December 1 and 

 2. The first mushrooms were picked .January 1, or about '■> weeks from the time the 

 beds were spawned. The regular picking began a week later. The spawn in a 

 small part of the bed did not produce mushrooms until about 2 months after spawn- 

 ing. When the crop was at its best 4 to 8 lbs. of mushrooms were collected at each 

 picking. 



Detailed directions are given for the making of mushroom beds in cellars, for the 

 preparation of the manure and packing into the beds, and for the buying and inser- 

 tion of the spawn in the prepared beds, with general notes on the growth of mush- 

 rooms, picking mushrooms, and the enemies affecting mushrooms. Illustrations are 

 given of the varieties Alaska, Columbia, and Bohemia, as grown under the different 

 conditions in the experiment, 



The orchard and fruit garden, E. P. Powell {New York: McClure, Phillip* & 

 Co., 1905, pp. XV 322, [>h. 24). — Popular directions are given for the culture of 

 orchard and small fruits, including citrus fruits, figs, dates, olives, pineapples, 

 bananas and other tropical fruits, and nuts. In the concluding part of the work 

 chapters are given on wind-breaks, drainage, irrigation, pruning, mulching, fertiliz- 

 ing, cover crops, spraying, the animal friends and foes of the garden, harvesting and 

 marketing of fruit, and plant breeding. The book is written for the practical fruit 

 grower, and appears to be well adapted for that purpose. 



Promising- new fruits, W. A. Taylor ( U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook 1904, pp- 399- 

 416, pis. 8). — Descriptions with colored illustrations are given of a number of promis- 

 ing fruits and nuts. Among these are the Bloomfield and Doctor apple, Rossney 

 pear, Millennial grape, Perfection currant, Delmas persimmon, and the following 10 

 varieties of pecans: Centennial, Frotscher, Jewett, Pabst, Post, Rome, Russell, San 

 Saba, Stuart, and Van Deman. 



New citrus creations of the Department of Agriculture, II. J. Webber and 

 W. T. Swingle ( U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook 1904, pp. 211-240, pis. IS, .fit/*. 2).— In 

 the work of the Department with citrus fruits the primary objects sought have been 

 "(1) hardier varieties which would endure the occasional severe freezes which visit 

 the orange sections, and, if possible, varieties sufficiently hardy to be grown farther 

 north than the present citrus belt; (2) new fruits having the loose, easily removable 

 rind of the mandarin and tangerine combined with the quality, flavor, and size of 

 the ordinary sweet orange; (3) new fruits having the sprightly acid flavor of the 

 pomelo with the bitterness reduced, and the loose, easily separable rind of the man- 

 darin and tangerine; and (4) new fruits intermediate between the pomelo and the 

 orange which would possess desirable market qualities." 



A hardier fruit has been obtained by crossing the trifoliate orange ( Citrus trifoliata) 

 with the sweet orange. Considerable difficulty was experienced in crossing these 2 

 varieties and only about 2 per cent of the flowers operated upon set fruit. Owing to 

 the polyembryonic character of the seeds of citrus fruits considerable care was neces- 

 sary in selecting the true hybrids. Of 40 hybrids of the trifoliate orange crossed 

 with the pollen of the sweet orange, 29 resembled the former in habit and foliage 

 characters while 11 were intermediate in these characters. From these crosses 2 

 fruits have been developed which are of considerable promise. 



These fruits are about midway in character between the 2 parents and are neither 

 sweet oranges, trifoliate oranges, nor lemons, and have therefore been grouped under 



