414 ANNTJAI, REPORT 



sufficient fruit from a bushel of native plums, which were free 

 from the little crescent mark in the skin, to fill a quart jar. 



It is from this crescent-shaped mark which the insect makes in 

 the skin of the plum, when it cuts through to lay its eggs in the 

 fleshy tissue, that it takes the name of "Little Turk." 



Our native varieties, from the fact that they are vigorous and 

 grow very rapidly are able to either drown out or to squeeze to 

 death any egg that may be laid in the tissue during its most 

 rapid growth, so that but very few of the eggs come to maturity 

 in this i^lum, and while they are not curculio proof, yet they have 

 the property of killing the eggs and preventing the destructive 

 results which come when they have full freedom to hatch and 

 mature, as when they are laid in varieties of European origin. 



Nevertheless, our native plums arc much injured by this cur- 

 culio, which is the cause of the many little hard blemishes in the 

 skin. Also there are a few eggs of the curculio which grow each 

 year in this plum, and they are those which are laid after the 

 plum has somewhat lessened its growth. 



VEGETABLES. 



As it was quite impracticable to do much in the way of in- 

 creasing our experiment work in the small fruit line other than 

 by planting out and preparing for results which it will require 

 more than one season to finish, I decided to go largely into the 

 testing of most of the standard as well as novelties in vegetables. 

 My reason for planting the standard vegetables was that the 

 data thus obtained would serve to some extent as a basis for the 

 comparison of future results obtained from a trial of novelties. 



The work has been well and carefully carried out and many of 

 the results are interesting. Some of the reports of varieties are 

 not so complete in giving the marketing qualities as I wished. 

 But I hope to add these features another year. 



VINEYARD. 



The new vineyard which was planted out in the spring of 1887, 

 has made a vigorous, healthy growth. The only sign of disease 

 in it occurred in August when I noticed the first appearance of 

 downy mildew {poronospora vUicola) on the leaves. This dis- 

 ease was of short duration and caused but little hindrance to 

 the ripening of the wood. A trellis has been erected in this 

 vineyard this fall to take the place of stakes which have been 



