1923.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 13a 



Market Garden Field Station Project 4. "Variety and strain test of tomatoes." 



Professor Tompson. 



Uniformity in growth conditions for the plants worked with in this test was prevented 

 by an exceedingly high wind storm a few days after the plants were set. For this reason 

 records of growth and behavior were not taken. 



Pomology Project 2. "A study of tree characters of fruit varieties." 



Professor Shaw and Mr. French. 



Bulletin 208, "Leaf Characters of Apple Varieties" has been prepared and published 

 during the year. The nursery certification work which has grown out of this project 

 is developing and about 10,000 trees were examined this year. It is hoped to undertake 

 further work with bud, bark, wood and growth habits this winter. 



Pomology Project 13. "Study of varieties of tree fruits." 



Professor Shaw and Assistant Professor Gould. 



Records of date and amount of bloom of practically all varieties of tree fruits on the 

 college grounds, and individual tree yields have been secured for the season of 1922. 



Breeding. 



Market Garden Field Station Project 6. "Improvement of Martha Washington 

 asparagus." 



Professor Tompson. 



The second-year records of the 1,062 asparagus plants being studied in this investiga- 

 tion indicate that the comparative behavior of individual plants is fairly constant. The 

 records also indicate a difference both in yield and in quality of product, due to the sex 

 of the plant, which is the exact opposite of what was formerly thought to be the case. 

 Thus far no practicable method of vegetative propagation of high yielding plants has 

 been found. 



Pomology Project 3. "The genetic composition of peaches." 



Professor Shaw. 



1922 failed to give a crop in this orchard. The trees are now old enough to warrant 

 actual crossing work, which will be attempted in the spring of 1923 in case the fruit buds 

 survive the winter. 



Orchard Management, 

 Pomology Project 4. "Experiments in pruning apples." 



Professor Shaw. 



The average weight of 300 trees removed in the spring of 1922 indicates that the 

 general law that pruning decreases tree growth in direct relationship to its severity holds 

 as far as the trees under experiment were concerned. 



Pomology Project 9. "Testing methods of pruning" and Pomology Project 10. 

 "Testing of pruning methods on Northern Spy and other varieties." 



Professor Shaw. 



The time of summer pruning in Project 9 was changed from August to May, the pur- 

 pose being to prevent undesired growth rather than remove it after it was made. 



The Spy trees in Project 10 bore a small crop of apples. There .seemed to be little 

 if any benefit from either of the two pruning methods used over the unpruned trees, 

 either in size of crop or quality of fruit. 



