208 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



KEPORT OF THE HORTICULTURIST. 



F. A. WAUGH. 



Outline of Work. 



Tlie work of the department of horticulture continues on 

 the lines laid down several years ago, and set forth in previous 

 reports of this station. The principal experiments under- 

 taken deal with problems in the propagation of fruit trees, 

 in pruning, and in the systematic study of varieties of fruits. 

 These all require a considerable number of years to secure 

 definite results, and no report on these experiments would be 

 justified at this early date. 



Incidental to other work, a few experiments of minor im- 

 portance have been underway, such as cross-grafting herba- 

 ceous jjlants, test of varieties of strawberries, details of 

 certain methods in market-garden practice, some study of 

 thermo-physiological constants, the practical application of di- 

 gesting fluids in the germination of seeds, the growing of 

 mushrooms, etc. A short report on the experiment last men- 

 tioned is appended herewith. 



Notes ojsr Mushroom Culture. 

 Opportunity has offered during the last two years to make 

 several practical experiments in mushroom culture. The 

 2:)rincipal matter at issue, aside from a demonstration of 

 methods, was the comparative value of the new pure-culture 

 spawn. Several commercial varieties of these so-called tissue 

 or pure-culture spawn were tested and compared, and com- 

 parison was made with the common commercial English spawn 

 and with the French spawn. The results are summarized 

 below. 



