ANNUAL REPORT, 1935 79 



Summary of Sources 



Commercial Growers — fields 259 



greenhouses 610 



Amateurs — lawns, flower gardens and vegetable gardens 588 

 Miscellaneous — golf courses, lawn contractors, land- 

 scape gardeners, Metropolitan Dis- 

 trict Commission 84 



Total 1,541 



Summary of Acidity Tests 



Samples from Greenhouses 



pH Vegetables Flowers All Others 



7.0-7.5 44 10 44 



6.5-6.9 95 70 101 



6.0-6.4 90 93 224 



5.5-5.9 36 82 313 



5.0-5.4 6 56 155 



4.5-4.9 23 81 



4.0-4.4 4 18 



The Plant House. (Paul W. Dempsey.) Because of the feeling that 

 economic conditions are improving, there is a renewed interest in the plant 

 house, shown by the increase in the demand for plans. Both plant houses at 

 the Field Station are used for growing crops the year around, proving their 

 value for other purposes besides the production of early plants. 



Electricity as a Source of Heat in the Hotbed and Propagating 

 Bench. (Paul W. Dempsey.) Results obtained this year in both the experi- 

 mental and some commercial installations emphasize the observations of the 

 past four years that operating costs are a limiting factor in the use of electricity 

 for this purpose. A few amateur gardeners have installed the equipment and 

 find operation costs on a small scale reasonable in comparison with previous 

 costs of other methods. 



Vegetable Variety Trials. (Paul W. Dempsey.) Because of absence of 

 the Stewart's Disease again this year, it was impossible to obtain resistance 

 records on the many new crossed varieties included in the sweet corn trials. 

 A few new varieties were tried out but none showed any outstanding charac- 

 teristics. Most ol the strains were of the new crossed varieties, some of them 

 maturing much earlier than any previously tried. 



Most of the new and old standard varieties of tomatoes were included in the 

 trials. Plants oi eacn variety were set both flat culture and trellis style. New 

 early varieties are introduced each year in an attempt to supplant the Earliana, 

 which is of poor quality, but not one of these shows any superiority. 



Field Day. The Seventeenth Annual Field Day was held on August 7 with 

 an attendance of 1,290 market gardeners, florists, fruit growers, nurserymen, 

 and others. The plan of conducting groups about the grounds at scheduled 

 intervals was tried for the first time and proved a successful means of ac- 

 quainting the visitors with the details of what is actually in progress. 



Ornamental Display and Test Gardens. (Harold E. White.) Public 

 interest in the perennial gardens still increases as is evidenced by the number 

 of visitors, which doubled this year over the year 1934. The attendant who is 

 on duty in the evenings from 5 to 8 o'clock and on Sundays checked an atten- 



