72 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 347 



that at a temperature of 60° F. the rot disease is less destructive than at higher 

 temperatures. Geranium cuttings taken from stock plants grown under glass gave 

 a higher percentage of disease-free rooted cuttings than did cuttings from field- 

 grown plants. Bordeau.x spray applied to plants in the field appeared to be harmful 

 rather than beneficial, since cuttings from sprayed plants did not root as well as 

 those from unsprayed plants. 



Effect of Temperature on Forcing Lilies. (Harold E. White, Waltham.) A 

 rooting temperature of 60^ F. was found to be better than 50° for bulbs of Liliiim 

 longiflorum var. giganteiim. The response was the same for southern-grown 

 Japanese bulbs of 7-9 and 9-10 cm. in size. The blooming period was 10 days to 

 2 weeks shorter when bulbs were rooted at a temperature of 60° than when they 

 were rooted at 50°. Bulbs rooted at temperatures of 70° and 80° and then grown 

 in a temperature of 60° developed and flowered normally. Bulbs rooted at a 

 temperature of 50° averaged 3.8 flowers per plant; at 60°, 4.3 flowers; at 70°, 

 3.85 flowers; and at 80°, 3.0 flowers per plant. On plants rooted in temperatures of 

 70° and 80° the internodes were longer than on plants rooted at 50° and 60°. 

 Changes in growing temperatures at various stages of bud development did not 

 cause splitting of the buds. 



DEPARTMENT OF HOME ECONOMICS NUTRITION 

 Helen S. Mitchell in Charge 



Cause and Control of Nutritional Cataract. (H. S. Mitchell and G. M. Cook.) 

 Medical authorities state that there is as yet no effective therapeutic agent for 

 the prevention or cure of cataract. While experimental cataract produced in 

 rats may be quite different from a senile or other type of cataract in man, yet the 

 lens is opaque in both cases and the mechanism of the change is unknown. The 

 experimental approach with animals which have proved susceptible to this 

 pathological change promises to yield results of fundamental importance which 

 may ultimately suggest some effective clinical procedure. 



The incidence and rate of development of cataract in rats may be controlled 

 with some degree of accuracy by the amount of galactose fed, thus providing an 

 experimental device for studying the possible influence of other dietary factors 

 upon cataract production. 



1. Effect of other dietary constituents upon the cataract- producing action of 

 galactose. The cataract-producing action of lactose or galactose rations was not 

 appreciably altered by 



1. type of supplementary carbohydrate 

 (starch, dextrine, sucrose, glucose). 



2. type of fat (crisco, butter, mutton 

 tallow, cod liver oil) or amount 

 (2, 11, 22, and 44%). 



3. addition of excess cholesterol 

 (2Hand5%). 



4. amount of salt mixture 

 (0, 4 and 10%). 



5. shifting acid-base balance 

 (4.767o Na citrate, 3.4% NH4CI). 



