RECORDING EXPERIMENTS 43 



It will facilitate matters to have the records of 

 planting arranged somewhat in the order in which 

 the plantings have occurred during the season. 



If these records are made on large sheets of 

 paper so plotted as to show the location of the 

 various beds of plants, this will be an added con- 

 venience, as it will enable any particular lot of 

 plants to be located, even if the label stakes 

 which are an absolute necessity, have been re- 

 moved or lost by careless workmen. 



Often when planting in the field, letters or 

 numbers are used on the stakes, corresponding 

 with similar letters or numbers in the record book. 



LABEL STAKES AND LABELS 



As to the label stakes themselves, the ones that 

 I habitually use for general field culture are about 

 20 inches long, 2 inches wide, and % of an inch in 

 thickness. They are smoothly planed and painted 

 about half way down on both sides with common 

 white lead paint. 



One coat of paint is far better than two, for 

 if a pencil is used the lightly painted surface 

 takes the lead to advantage, and by bearing down 

 heavily with the pencil, indentations are made in 

 the wood that will resist the weather more 

 effectually and thus give greater permanence to 

 the record. 



