RECORDING EXPERIMENTS 41 



oped in the course of my years of experience, and 

 in particular to point out some of the short cuts 

 that have made it possible to record the essentials, 

 and even in important cases the details, of prog- 

 ress, with a minimum expenditure of time and 

 labor. 



Among the essentials that cannot be overlooked 

 by any systematic and successful experimenter 

 are the following: 



A general plan of the ground occupied by all 

 the experiments must be made, and there must be 

 clear record of each plant, shrub, or tree planted. 

 It is important also to record the time when each 

 one was grafted or budded; the date of all experi- 

 ments in crossing any particular tree or plant; 

 observations as to any anomalies of development ; 

 and finally, as a matter of course, the results 

 obtained. 



As to these things, the memory, no matter how 

 tenacious, must prove more or less untrustworthy. 

 It is only the black and white record that can be 

 depended upon. But plans may be outlined so 

 simply that all these essentials may be recorded 

 at the expense of very little time or labor. 



It is not much trouble, for example, to keep a 

 plan book at hand, each page of which is devoted 

 to a certain planting, its location on the grounds, 

 and all other matters that are worthy of record. 



