EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 521 



size, and yet the ''quarter blood" of the small "Currant" was able to 

 pull against the. three and control the form of the fruit cluster and 

 the type of the fruit. It illustrates that it is easier to drag down 

 than to build up. It is also to be noted, in passing, that the red color 

 of the "Currant" (and "Stone") prevails against the pink of both 

 the "Magnus" and "Ponderosa." 



Next season plants from this double cross, hand-worked within the 

 combination, would be recorded upon the stake by the same fraction, 



177 



122 

 103 



with the addition of the Roman two (II.) below, thus: 



II. 

 Other vegetable fruits are treated in a similar manner as to record 

 numbers. Thus each kind of truck crop under breeding trials has its 

 own set of numbers, provided there is no hope of breeding them to- 

 gether. Thus sweet corn had numbers up to 105 before the subject 

 of popcorn was added to the list, and as it may be desirable to breed 

 these two groups together, the popcorns, of which thirty-six numbers 

 were added this year, must be recorded from 106 to 142, to avoid any 

 confusion. In the same way all kinds of beans, whether bush, pole, 

 string or lima, come into the same series, although there is much less 

 hope of a comhination between the last two than elsewhere. All tlie 

 squashes are numbered in the same series, but the breeding affinities are 

 very distant between the two leading species represented. 



The Marking of Stakes. 



As experience is gathered from year to year, the importance of 

 large, deeply-set stakes for all rows and special plants in the grounds 

 becomes more and more emphasized. 



When a plant is first set or a row planted with seeds a six-inch 

 stake seems large enough, but plants increase and stakes decrease, or 

 get trodden down, broken off or inexplicably mixed up, when there are 

 workmen removing weeds and visitors of all kinds passing through the 

 grounds. The only safe way is to set a stout stake at the head of each 

 row before the plants are added or the seeds are dropped. These 

 stakes need to be at least two feet long and driven in a little slanting 

 toward the row, fully fourteen inches. They should be plainly marked 

 before being placed where they are to remain during the life of the 



