543 



the American market much more expensive than for the Argentine 

 and other markets which do not require such an excessively 

 high grading." 'Swingle.) For distribution later. 



VITIS YINIFBRA. (Vitaceae.) 33074-076, 33111-118. Cut- 

 tings of grapes from Bhamdun, Mt . Lebanon, Syria. Present- 

 ed by Rev. Alfred Ely Day. Eleven varieties of grapes of 

 table, raisin and v/ine sorts. For distribution later. 



NOTES FROM FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS. 



CUBA. Central Soledad, Cienfuegos, Mr. Robert M. Grey, 

 superintendent of the Harvard Botanial Experimental Station, 

 writes April 23, 1912, "I have a variety of cane that is rich 

 in sucrose but cannot be fertilized with its own pollen. 

 This year I covered one of the panicles with gauze cloth and 

 fertilized the flowers with quantities of pollen from Indian 

 corn which resulted in my obtaining over seven hundred seed- 

 lings from one cane panicle thus treated. The plants are 

 small yet and show no traces of corn and it is possible that 

 the corn pollen simply acted as a stimulus to fertilization." 



RUSSIA. Rostoff-on-Don. Mr Frank N. Meyer wrote Dec. 

 11, 1911: "I went to the newly established Selection Station 

 at Saratov, where I saw Mr. A. J. Stebut, who is in charge. 

 This Station was started only some months ago, so the build- 

 ings even were not finished and the grounds were not laid out. 

 Mr. Stebut told me of their plans. And here are his main 

 remarks. Southern Russia derives her greatest income from the 

 durum wheats, therefore this selection station will devote the 

 major part of both time and money to the study of these 

 wheats, the aim being to select types better suited to drouth 

 than the present varieties: to create good winter durum 

 wheats, if possible; to hybridize durum wheats with other 

 wheats, so as to develop new races; to study "Poltavka", a 

 soft wheat; to try to develop strains of sunflowers, resis- 

 tant to the ravages of Orobanche, which is a pest in Southern 

 Russia (one variety of sunflower called "Selonka" seems much 

 mere resistant than other varieties and will be taken as a 

 starting point) ;to study all the local varieties of wheats, as 

 there are several existant, which are grown in limited locali- 

 ties only and have escaped the attention of describers; to in- 

 vestigate the reasons why durum wheat degenerates so serious- 

 ly, when sown on soil which grew wheat before; to create new 

 races of forage plants, better suited to local conditions than 

 alfalfa or red clover, cooperating in this line with Mr. W. S. 

 Bogdan, at Krassny Koot. Later on they would also start the 





