550 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



ing a spoon or ladle under each blossom and tapping the flower lightly 

 from above. The jarring of the flower shakes the pollen into the 

 spoon and brings the stigma into contact with it, pollination thus being 

 secured. A new method was tested in 1899. The corolla of the flower 

 was pulled away after it had fully opened. 



[lu doing this] "the anthers are broken open and the pollen, if ripe and dry, 

 escapes into the air and some usually reaches the pistil of the flower and fertilizes 

 it. . . . Blossoms pollinated in this manner produced as many fruits as where the 

 spoon method was used. . . . The spoon method, however, took less time and it 

 seems more likely to effect cross-fertilization." 



LetUice (pp. 22^326). — Results obtained subsequent to 1896 have been 

 reported (E. S. R., 8, p. 405). The plats in the forcing house were 5f 

 in. deep and contained 11:.5 sq. ft. of surface each. Ten plats were filled 

 with a rich compost of rotted turf and horse manure, and 10 with coal 

 ashes sifted through a sieve with -1 meshes to the inch. The coal ashes 

 were mixed with 5 per cent peat moss passed through the same sieve. 

 During the season 3 crops of White Tennis Ball lettuce were grown on 

 each of the plats. The yield of lettuce was smaller on sub-watered 

 than on surface-watered plats with both kinds of soil. With the mix- 

 ture of coal ashes and peat moss, applications of 162.9 gm. of nitrate 

 of soda, 49 gm. of dissolved boneblack, and 88.8 gm. of muriate of 

 potash gave as good results as larger amounts of these ingredients. 



"The yield from plats of coal ashes alone was decidedly less than from the mix- 

 ture of ashes and peat moss. From the compost soils to which only small quantities 

 of nitrate were added no larger yields were got than from the corresponding ashes 

 and peat plats, but when to the compost were added the same amounts of fertilizers 

 as to the ashes and peat, the yields were larger from the compost. In all cases more 

 marketaljle heads were got from the compost plats." 



The following year mixtures of from 9 to 12 per cent of peat moss 

 with coal ashes proved a better soil medium for lettuce than mixtures 

 containing less than these amounts. In soil containing 12 per cent of 

 peat moss, 1,000 plants, roots and heads, removed -113 gm. of nitrogen, 

 equivalent to 6i lbs. of nitrate of soda; 185 gm. of phosphoric acid, 

 equivalent to 3 lbs. of dissolved boneblack, and 697 gm. of potash, 

 equivalent to 3y g lbs. of muriate of potash. 



In 1898 a black swamp muck of the neighborhood, which contained 

 no fiber, proved inferior to peat moss as a soil medium for lettuce. 



"A number of comparisons were made of the growth of lettuce on rich ci)mi>ost and 

 of its growth on the same kind of compost which had been sterilized by heating it for 

 1 hour with live steam, which raises the temperature of the soil to above 100° ('.... 

 In every case a better crop was grown on sterilized soil than on the corresponding 

 plats untreated. Lettuce transplanted only once was much larger and heavier than 

 that which was twice transplanted. Fertilizer chemicals depressed the yield in each 

 case, while the addition of lime did not greatly affect the weight or quality of the crop. ' ' 



Carnations (pp. 226-235). — For a previous report see E. S. R., 10, 

 p. 245. 



