10 



fruit if subjected to the slightest overflow or inundation, and a further 

 acceptance of the Filipino trellis system seems unavoidable where late or 

 lenten-season planting of late-maturing varieties promises to defer the 

 fruiting epoch until the advent of the heavy June rains. 



The Solanacece. As was to be anticipated, many representatives of 

 this largely tropical order have given encouraging results. From our few 

 tests made with potatoes it is yet too early to forecast results, although it 

 is altogether safe to aver that south of 15 north latitude no commercial 

 planting under an elevation of 600 meters can successfully be made. 

 Seed of very great promise was received by the Bureau through the kind- 

 ness of Maj. W. W. Kobinson, jr., United States Army, and has been 

 sent to our station at Benguet for purposes of propagation. 



Eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers, all of unrivaled size and excellence, 

 are generally reported by our collaborators and from our own agronomic 

 stations. 



The experiences of the Spaniard and of the Filipino indicate a rapid 

 degeneration in size and quality, even in the second generation of these 

 products when reared from home-grown seeds. 



Whether a high standard can be maintained by careful seed selection 

 an operation generally unknown to .the Filipino horticulturist or, if 

 annual importation of northern-grown seeds of plants originally of trop- 

 ical origin, such as the foregoing, must continuously be made, is one of 

 the problems for investigation now before this Bureau. 



The Liliacece. A native onior, small in size and rank in quality, i& 

 common throughout the Islands. In Batangas Province it is, in fact, 

 grown upon a considerable commercial scale for distribution in the Manila 

 markets. Our American varieties have not in general responded well to 

 our own efforts nor those of outside planters. Our investigations have 

 gone far enough to indicate that this product is also emphatically a cool- 

 season crop that may be sown with hope of success only toward the end of 

 the rainy monsoon. Leeks have been planted with more general success, 

 and the widely disassociated genus asparagus is giving excellent promise 

 of future success. 



Miscellaneous Genera. Okra (Hibiscus esculentus), of topical Asi- 

 atic origin, as was to be expected, has given universally good results. 

 Beets, turnips, lettuce, endive, spinach, and radishes are among that class 

 early referred to in this paper whose successful and profitable production, 

 we have abundantly demonstrated, is assured by an intense high-forcing 

 system inaugurated from the day the seed is sown until the crop is 

 secured. Early varieties of cabbage proved disappointing, so far as our 

 own immediate trials went, although a very considerable number of our 

 collaborators report '^headed out well." Cauliflower was a failure, not- 

 withstanding tests made with seeds from the extra tropics of Algeria. 

 Sweet or table corn, like the field varieties, developed the same tendency 



