20 UNIV. OF N. H. AGE. EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 216 



life history, seasonal abundance and ecology that will constitute a material 

 contribution to the recorded knowledge of black flies. In the course of identify- 

 ing species and tabulating data it has been found advisable to duplicate col- 

 lections at various points during the present season because of the fact that 

 lessened or increased stream flow, the drying up of certain streams, and the 

 renewed flow of water in others have an important as well as highly interesting 

 bearing on the occurrence and abundance of various species. The records will 

 probably yield solutions of phases in the life history of this group that have been 

 incapable of satisfactory explanation hitherto. 



Celery Project. 



An investigation of the changes in chemical composition of celery during 

 storage is being made this year by O. H. Pearson (Horticultm-e). Three 

 thousand plants of the Golden Self-Blanching variety were grown under ordi- 

 nary conditions of cultm-e. These were placed in field storage in a pit early in 

 October. Samples for chemical analysis were taken at this time and at inter- 

 vals of two weeks until Thanksgiving. 



In sampling for chemical analysis the celery plant is divided into five por- 

 tions, as follows: the outside leaves and outside petioles, the part discarded in 

 commercial practice as waste; the inside leaves and inside petioles, the parts 

 ordinarily sold on the market; and the roots. Duplicate samples of each of 

 these parts have been taken and will be analyzed for free-reducing sugar, 

 sucrose, starch, nitrogen (both protein and nitrate) phosphorus, and moisture. 



This distribution of samples should indicate what materials are translocated 

 from the old leaves and stalks to those which are growing and may shed some 

 fight on the metabohc activity of plants during the period of storage. 



Variety Test of Fruits. 



In the variety test of apples conducted by G. F. Potter and S. W. Wentworth 

 interest still centers about the search for a high quality apple of late season, to 

 follow Mcintosh and compete with Western varieties for fruit-stand trade. 

 The trees of Cortland and Nodhead have made fair, but not exceptional growth. 

 In the orchard set in sod lands in 1923 in which there is a comparative test side 

 by side of about 50 trees each of Red Deficious and Baldwin, Golden Delicious 

 and Wealthy, the trees made a good growth. They were fertilized with be- 

 tween one-half and three-fourths pound nitrate of soda in early spring, and 

 have been mulched with some hay and other litter from outside sources in 

 addition to the grass which grows in the field. The Red Delicious specimens 

 harvested from the small number of trees in the Thompson Orchard now in the 

 fourth season of fruiting are considerably larger and of better type than those 

 previously borne by these trees. The Golden Delicious fruited heavily on top- 

 grafted trees. The quality of that variety makes it very popular locally, 

 although it is the opinion of all those in the wholesale fruit trade in this section 

 that the variety will not sell well on account of its color. 



A number of varieties of peaches were received from the New York State 

 Fruit Testing Association and planted in the spring of 1924. No observations 

 could be made on the relative value of the varieties in the present plantation 



