RECORDING EXPERIMENTS 47 



made with pencil. A large number of tags may 

 be prepared at once with punch or scissors. 



Tags of this character are less likely to have 

 their records erased by wasps and hornets, which 

 often partially destroy labels when securing 

 material for their paper homes. 



Conspicuous tags such as these are also of aid 

 later in the season when the seed is to be gath- 

 ered; because they make known at a glance the 

 facts as to parentage, and make it possible to 

 keep separate the seeds of different varieties. 

 The labels are tied to the plants with common 

 twine, as wire or other hard substances would be 

 likely to injure the tender stems when the wind 

 moves the tags about. 



When numerous varieties of plants are grown 

 in a single bed, we often nail a common tree label 

 opposite each row on the board that borders the 

 bed, instead of using a stake, as there is less 

 danger of the label being displaced. It will be 

 advantageous to place this label at the side of 

 the bed away from that from which the prevail- 

 ing winds and storms come. In this section of 

 California the summer winds and winter storms 

 come from the south, east, and southwest, and 

 in conjunction with the hot sunshine they are 

 very destructive to paint. So it is advantageous 

 to face the labels toward the north. 



