26 



James Stewart Wiant 



following data were obtained from five nine-row plats in each of the treated 

 and untreated areas. 



It is apparent that the results obtained with the muck were not signifi- 

 cantly different from those where it was not used. Observations covering 

 two years have failed to reveal any convincing evidence that the occurrence 

 of damping-off in different parts of this nursery is associated with applica- 

 tions of muck to the soil. 



Fall seeding 



The practice of sowing coniferous seedbeds during the fall is followed by 

 many nurserymen. Where practicable it has the advantage of distributing 

 nursery operations more uniformly throughout the season, and thus 

 relieving the congestion of work during the early spring months when 

 transplanting and shipping operations are at their height. To carry out 

 such a program, it is necessary to get the seed into the soil late enough to 

 prevent fall germination and yet early enough to escape the colder weather 

 which would make soil operations impossible. An obvious advantage of 

 the practice is to insure early germination in the spring, and thus provide 

 a longer growing season than would be available for spring-sown stock. 

 Many nurserymen believe that the method has a further advantage in 

 enabling them to avoid the losses from damping-off which are so common 

 on beds sown during the spring, their reason being that by the time weather 

 conditions are most favorable for damping-off the seedlings will have 

 developed far enough to have escaped the disease. 



Observations were made for one season, at the Keene nursery, on the 

 relative abundance of the disease in beds sown during the fall of 1926 

 and in those sown at varying periods during the following spring. The 

 several locations of the seedbeds were designated by letters. Locations 

 B and C were in that part of the nursery where damping-off had been most 

 severe in previous years. They were about 100 yards apart, and each in 

 turn was several hundred yards removed from location A, where most of 

 the beds were sown and where damping-off had never been a serious prob- 

 lem. The part of the nursery designated as location D was intermediate 

 in position between B and C. In table 7 are given the percentages of 

 damping-off that were recorded from the various beds. 



