970 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The following are among the more important conclusions of the author relative to 

 vegetable gardens: 



"There is little danger of making the soil too rich for a vegetable garden, for 

 although a total of ninety-eight loads of manura were applied to the half acre during 

 the 5 years, none of the vegetables at anytime suffered in point of productiveness 

 by reason of too rampant a vegetable growth. The use of hand tools is unnecessary 

 in the preparation of a seed bed if the soil is worked at the proper time. The 

 labor of hand weeding may be reduced to a minimum by planting in freshly worked 

 soil only, tilling close to the rows early in the season, and permitting no weeds to 

 ripen their seed. The use of a wheel hoe saves labor in the care of a garden, even 

 when much of the tillage is to be done with a horse." 



Vegetable growing: (Horticulture, 3 {1906), No. 8, pp. 227, 228).— Abstract of 

 an address by W. W. Kawson before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in 

 which he states that he has found the arc electric light beneficial for the growing of 

 lettuce under glass, and that he is securing promising results by the use of a current 

 of electricity in the soil in his lettuce house. 



duality of vegetables and fruits for the home garden, L. and Effie M. Bar- 

 ron and S. W. Fletcher ( Country Life Amer., 9 (1906), No. 5, pp. 567-574, fig*. 45).— 

 Illustrations and descriptions are given of what the authors term best-flavored vari- 

 eties of vegetables and fruits. Cultural directions are given for the varieties, followed 

 by a discussion of the principles of cooking that- underlie the best methods for their 

 preparation. 



Planting tables for flowers and vegetables (Suburban Life, 2 (1906), No. 3, pp. 

 126, 127). — Tables are given showing when to sow seed, set out plants, distance to 

 transplant, height of plants, and season and color of bloom of 52 kinds of flowers, 

 and the time of planting seed either indoors, in hotbeds, or outdoors, time of trans- 

 planting, distance apart in rows and between plants, the amount of seed required, 

 and the time of maturity of 52 kinds of vegetables. 



Classified planting list for annuals and vegetables, P. T. Barnes (Card. 

 Mag. [N. ¥.], 3 (1906), No. 3, pp. 139-141, 155, 156) .—Cultural directions are arranged 

 in tabular form for 10 flowering annuals useful as cut flowers, 6 fragrant-flowered 

 annuals, 6 climbing annuals, 6 annuals that resow themselves, 6 annuals for sunny 

 places, and the same number for shady places, rocky places, sandy soils, heavy soils, 

 very cold climates, 6 annuals that bloom after frost, 6 that resist drought, and 5 

 everlasting-flowered annuals. 



In each case the date of flowering is noted, the color of the flowers, and the height 

 to which they grow. The vegetables are classified as pot herbs or greens, salad 

 plants and sweet herbs, seeds and fruits. Type varieties of vegetables to plant in 

 order to secure a succession throughout the season are given. 



Fifty dollars per acre from cucumbers, W. C. Collins (1905, pp. 10). — This 

 brief pamphlet gives practical directions for the culture of cucumbers for pickling 

 purposes. 



Breeding sweet corn — cooperative tests, B. D. Halsted (New Jersey Stas. 

 Bui. 192, pp. 30, pis. 4, figs. 8). — The author has experimented extensively in the 

 cross-breeding of sweet corn, and has sent many samples of the hybrid corns to the 

 farmers throughout the State to grow in cooperative tests with the station. 



In the production of sweet corn it is necessary that each variety be planted away 

 from other varieties in order to prevent interpollination. The results of this breed- 

 ing work has shown that the breaking up in the second and subsequent generations 

 of seed clearly follows the law of Mendel. The. bulletin explains this law in con- 

 siderable detail, and thus indicates to those who are carrying on the cooperative 

 tests the character of the corn they may expect in different generations by planting 

 the different kinds of seeds found on the same ear of hybrid corn. 



