368 NEW JERSEY STATE AGRICULTURAL 



A set of plants of "Hyacinth Bean" (Dolichos Lablab L.), 

 which grew with great vigor and bloomed most profusely, offered 

 an opportunity to test the effect of thinning, but, in this instance, . 

 within the single flower clusters which normally may mature 

 eight or more pods, as shown at i in Plate XXIIL In the thin- 

 ning sometimes the oldest (lowermost) bloom or young pod was 

 left as at 2, or the middle one as at 3, or the youngest as at 

 4 ; in the last, however, a middle pod was also reserved. One of 

 the most noticeable features with this test was the hastening to 

 maturity of the isolated pods; thus, upon two similar clusters, 

 one thinned and the other not, the pod upon the fonner became 

 dry and the seeds hard before the normal cluster showed any 

 signs of maturity. At 12 is shown an instance where the flowers 

 were all removed from the main axis and afterwards a short stem 

 formed below, which bore five large pods. In 15, the flower buds 

 at one joint only were left and these developed into five large 

 pods, where normally one or two are produced ; in other words, 

 the natural thinning probably was interfered with. 



There does not seem to be any increase in the size of the pods 

 or weight of the seeds ascribable to this process of thinning and 

 the relative strength — vigor, variability, etc. — of the seeds thus 

 produced is a matter for later consideration. 



EXPERIMENTS IN GRAFTING. 



During the past winter, some attention was paid to grafting 

 among vegetables in the greenhouse. The methods consisted 

 in growing two plants near together in the same box, or in sepa- 

 rate pots, and at a foot or so above the soil, a "tongue" was made 

 on each plant by a slant incision into the stem, the one upward 

 and the other downward, the two then being united by mutual in- 

 sertion and the joint covered with moist moss and tied with raflia. 

 In this condition, the two plants were allowed to remain until the 

 joints grew together, and then the plant selected as the scion was 

 cut off below the union. The resulted graft, trimmed of its un- 

 necessary parts, was kept erect by fastening to a support. 



