Feb., 1926] PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS 23 



To throw the greatest light on this problem samples have been taken 

 from sets of trees under twenty-five different environmental co ditions. 

 With this number of plots it is impossible to follow the composition closely 

 by taking a large number of samples from each plot. Therefore, the sam- 

 pling was done only on two sampling dates at the portion of the year at 

 which it is believed from previous experience the greatest differences in 

 chemical composition will be found. These plans were consummated 

 during the latter part of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1925, and all the 

 samples were taken during the early part of the following fiscal year. The 

 work is being done by G. F. Potter, S. W. Wentworth, and T. G.Phillips. 



Winter Injury (Adams Fund) 



Three lines of work are being followed by Mr. Potter in this study. In 

 the nursery, trees are being grown upon vegetatively propagated Hibernal 

 roots, this variety having been found in laboratory experiments to be the 

 most resistant to damage by cold in winter. These trees have now 

 finished the second season in the nursery and will be dug during the spring 

 of 1925, when observations can be made upon the relative size of trees as 

 compared to the same varieties grafted on seedling stocks and also on 

 the nature of the union between Baldwin and Mcintosh scions and Hiber- 

 nal roots. After these observations are taken, the trees will be planted 

 out for further test under orchard conditions. 



The second phase of the work consists of a detailed study of the his- 

 tology of winter injury. A considerable number of slides have been 

 stained and examined, but no conclusions as yet have been reached as a 

 result of this study. 



In connection with studies of the chemical composition of hardy and 

 non-hardy roots, sixteen additional samples were taken during the present 

 year. In this work an effort is being made to determine whether or not 

 withering of the roots, which is known to materially increase their hardi- 

 ness, produces a correlated change in the composition of the seedling. 

 Samples of one-year-old apple seedlings, some of which were in turgid 

 condition just as they were taken from moist sand in a cool storage, 

 were compared with samples of similar roots which had been removed 

 from the moist sand and exposed to the air of a dry cellar for 24 hours. 

 From previous experiments it is known that under exactly the same 

 conditions the roots which have been withered will be found to show only 

 half as much injury from freezing as those which are moist -and turgid. 

 Whether this increased hardiness is due to or accompanied by a chemical 

 change which can be detected by analysis will be determined. No prog- 

 ress was made in the analysis of- the samples previously taken which 

 consist of parts of individual roots known to be relatively hardy or 

 relatively tender when under similar conditions of moisture and storage. 

 It is hoped that during the. present fiscal year it will be possible to carry 

 forward analysis of all these samples at the same time. 



Storage and Blanching of Celery (Hatch Fund) 



Changes in the composition of five distinct portions of Golden Self- 

 blanching celery plants were studied bj' 0. H. Pearson during the period 

 of two months while they were stored in an outdoor pit. Methods of 

 analysis now in vogue were found to be entirely inadequate in many 

 respects. Particular diflficulty was encountered in the analysis for starch 



