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HORTICULTURE 



December 9, 1911 



reports from all sections of the coun- 

 try. 



The work of packeting, assembling 

 and mailing the vegetable and flower 

 sods was done under contract at a 

 cost of $1.10% per thousand packets, 

 which included delivery of the packet- 

 ed seed in mail sacks direct to the 

 Union Station. A new contract has 

 entered into for putting up and 

 mailing the seeds for the coming 

 distribution at a savins over the for- 

 mer contract of 1 cent per thousand 

 packets. 



Home Grown Dutch Bulbs. 



The propagation of Dutch bulbs in 

 the Puget Sound region in connection 

 with the congressional distribution is 

 progressing favorably. Trial sets of 

 narcissus and tulip bulbs propagated 

 near Bellingham, Wash., were planted 

 at Washington, D. C, with sets of 

 bulbs of the same varieties imported 

 from Holland, and the Bellingham 

 bulbs produced better blossoms 10 

 days earlier than the imported bulbs. 

 The early blooming period of Amer- 

 ican-grown bulbs is of importance to 

 all professional florists, because of the 

 saving in time and fuel where bulbs 

 are forced for market. 



Need for Trained Plant Pathologists. 



The growing need for trained plant 

 pathologists to take up numerous 

 problems which are now being pre- 

 sented to this department for solution 

 is extremely urgent. While the uni- 

 versities and colleges appear to be do- 

 ing what they can, it happens usually 

 in our work that men fresh from col- 

 lege do not have the requisite outlook 

 or the necessary training to obtain 

 practical results in this field. Usually 

 we have to give them several years of 

 additional training in order to make 

 them most serviceable to the advance- 

 ment of agriculture in these lines. 

 Every year requests come to us from 

 the experiment stations and similar 

 institutions in the United States to 

 name persons well qualified for ap- 

 pointment to positions involving plant 

 pathological research in these various 

 institutions, and, unfortunately, in a 

 very considerable number of cases we 

 have to say that, glad as we would be 

 to recommend persons, there are none 

 in sight with the necessary training. 

 This lack of a sufficient number of 

 trained pathologists works to the seri- 

 ous disadvantage of agriculture in this 

 country. The department would be 

 glad to have in training an additional 

 number of young men for such posi- 

 tions. 



Work on the Gipsy Moth and the 

 Brown-Tail Moth. 



The general conditions in that por- 

 tion of the country originally invaded 

 by the gipsy moth, that is to say, east- 

 ern Massachusetts, have been better 

 during the past year than for many 

 previous years. This has been due in 

 part to weather conditions, to the pre- 

 valence of the wilt disease, to the 

 gradual increase of parasites imported 

 from abroad, and to the cumulative 

 effect of the excellent work done along 

 roadsides by the Bureau of Entomo- 

 logy, in certain forests by the State of 

 Massachusetts, and in the different 

 towns under municipal and state con- 

 trol. The conditons in New Hamp- 

 shire, however, are much worse than 

 in Massachusetts. Many towns in the 



southeastern part of the state are seri- 

 ously Infested, and the insect occurs 

 in 125 towns in all. In several of the 

 northern towns the pest has apparent- 

 ly been exterminated. In Maine there 

 has been a further spread, and a new 

 colony has been found in Rhode 

 [Bland. The brown-tail moth has es- 

 tablished itself in the northeastern 

 part of Connecticut. 



The increase and spread of the im- 

 ported parasites and natural enemies 

 of both the gipsy moth and the brown- 

 tail moth has been gratifying, and sev- 

 eral species have been brought in dur- 

 ing the past year in large numbers 

 which the Bureau of Entomology had 

 not previously been able to secure. 

 During the summer an imported Japa- 

 nese egg parasite, which had previ- 

 ously been thought to have died 

 out, was recovered in considerable 

 numbers. An appreciable effect upon 

 the numbers of the gipsy moth as the 

 result of parasitic work is beginning 

 to be noticed. 



New studies have been begun of the 

 feeding habits of the newly hatched 

 caterpillars of the gipsy moth, and al- 

 ready it seems that it will probably 

 be possible to control the gipsy moth 

 in forested areas by a certain varia- 

 tion in forest management dependent 

 upon the feeding habits of the young 

 caterpillars. This means that the for- 

 ests of New England, and later other 

 portions of the country, are not 

 doomed, and that a good stand of tim- 

 ber can be maintained even should the 

 pest increase beyond the ultimate con- 

 trol of the parasites, and this in itself 

 is most unlikely. 



A SOIL TESTING OUTFIT PRO- 

 NOUNCED WORTHLESS. 



Editor HORTICULTURE: 



The Foote Farm Laboratories of 

 Fredericktown, Ohio, are putting out 

 what they call the "Foote Soil Testing 

 Outfit." They are widely advertising 

 this outfit and offering it to individual 

 farmers for $10. They also include in 

 the outfit a copy of my book, "The 

 Story of the Soil," supposedly as an 

 added inducement to the purchaser. I 

 wish to say that I knew nothing of 

 the Foote Farm Laboratories until we 

 began to receive inquiries from their 

 advertisement. We at once ordered an 

 outfit, including all instructions, and 

 have thoroughly investigated the out- 

 fit and the methods by which the 

 Foote Farm Laboratories claim any 

 farmer can analyze his soil, — the fol- 

 lowing quotation being a sample of 

 their advertising: 



"The Foote Soil Testing Outfit is a 

 complete, practical farm equipment 

 with which you can readily tell what 

 plant food each one of your fields 

 needs and what they already have. It 

 tells you just what food elements are 

 in your soil and what is lacking." 



A thorough investigation of this out- 

 fit clearly reveals the fact that it is 

 absolutely worthless. The so-called 

 directions for testing soil not only 

 give no valuable information, but they 

 are absurd and senseless. The farmer 

 who pays $10 for the outfit and at- 

 tempts to use it will have thrown 

 away both his time and money. I 

 make this statement because my name 

 is being used in a way to mislead. 



CYRIL G. HOPKINS. 

 Dept. of Agronomy and Chemistry, 



University of Illinois. 



M. A. C. DEMONSTRATION OR- 

 CHARDS. 



The returns for 1911 from the 

 Demonstration Orchards established 

 by the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College are beginning to come in to 

 Alvah J. Norman, who has the super- 

 vision of these Demonstration Or- 

 chards. He reports that he Is very 

 much pleased witli the results of the 

 work for such a dry season. The re- 

 turns are very interesting in that they 

 show the possibilities in the way ot 

 net returns from land planted to or- 

 chards in Massachusetts. 



The prevailing idea is that the man 

 who plants an orcherd is throwing 

 away the. use of his land for ten or 

 fifteen years, before the trees come 

 into bearing. How very incorrect this 

 idea is has been well shown from the 

 returns made by C. W. Maynard, of 

 Enfield, Massachusetts, who was the 

 first to make returns for 1911. 



The College planted an orchard ot 

 about 450 trees on Mr. Maynard's 

 place in May. The cost of preparing 

 the land, planting the trees and car- 

 ing for the orchard was, of course, 

 borne by Mr. Maynard. The trees used 

 were, in most cases, one-year old, of 

 the varieties Baldwin, Mcintosh, 

 Wealthy, Williams Early and Olden- 

 burg. The entire expense to which Mr. 

 Maynard was placed, for preparing the 

 land, about four and one-half acres, 

 planting the trees, caring for the trees, 

 planting associated crops and caring 

 for the same, including cost of seed, 

 fertilizer and harvesting, all labor 

 items being charged at prevailing 

 prices, totaled $118.35. The returns 

 from the associated crops were as fol- 

 lows: Red kidney beans, $112; sweet 

 corn, $56.82; turnips, $12, and the ber- 

 ries from a small patch of raspber- 

 ries, which were already in one corner 

 of the orchard, sold for $26.01; giving 

 a total income of $206.83, which leaves 

 a net profit of $88.48 or approximately 

 $20 per acre, which is not a very small 

 net return per acre for New England 

 soil when the whole of the land is de- 

 voted to one crop. 



The year has been a very hard one 

 on the orchard and associated crops. 

 The orchard was planted a little late, 

 delaying the planting of the associated 

 crops, which caused them to be slight- 

 ly injured by the early frost. The or- 

 chard is planted on rather light land 

 which, together with late planting and 

 extreme drouth, did not lead those in 

 charge to expect much growth the first 

 year. Mr. Norman stated when the 

 trees were planted that he would be 

 satisfied if half of the trees would live 

 in case of a dry season. The dry sea- 

 son certainly came but only 10 per 

 cent of the trees failed to come 

 through the season, while some of the 

 trees sent out several strong branches, 

 some of which measured 40 inches. 

 The average length of the new branch- 

 es is nearly 25 inches. The average 

 diameter of the trees is about five- 

 eighths of an inch. 



Next spring new trees will be 

 planted in place of the dead ones and 

 those which seem stunted. In another 

 year the trees will be large enough to 

 make the orchard a very pretty sight. 

 It is expected that, apples will be 

 picked from the trees the fourth sea- 

 son. Mr. Maynard will be glad to 

 show the orchard to any who wish to 

 see what orchards can be made to do 

 in that section. 



