BOOKS AND 



perior to all others. It matured heads a week earlier 

 than Grand Rapids, and they were much thicker and 

 heavier. The Arlington Tennis Ball is one of the 

 best strains we have grown, and unless one of the 

 above sorts is to be grown, will be found very desirable 

 for forcing. During the fall we wrote to several seeds- 

 men and requested them to send us their two best forc- 

 ing lettuces. In nearly every case White Tennis Ball 

 was sent as one. We have generally grown the Boston 

 Curled variety for forcing-house and hot-bed purposes, 

 but it is ten days later than Grand Rapids, and in several 

 respects it is inferior to that variety. Landreth's Forc- 

 ing is a good variety, but all of the three first mentioned 

 sorts are better. Market Gardeners' Private Stock and 

 Boston Market are good strains of Tennis Ball, but the 

 Arlington is better. Silver Ball, from Hallock, is also a 

 strain of Tennis Ball. For hot-bed varieties, in addition 

 to the Chicago, Black-Seeded Simpson, Curled Simpson, 

 Hanson, Blonde Block-head (practically identical with 

 Hanson), and Sugar Loaf will do well. For the cold- 

 frame and the open ground for spring use, the hot-bed 

 kinds did well, as did Chartier (Early Prize seems iden- 

 tical), which is an excellent variety with the wrinkled 

 edges of its leaves tinged with red. All Heart would be 

 a splendid lettuce, were it not for its tendency to rot. 



" Of the summer varieties. All the Year Round, Ever- 

 lasting, No. 21, and Salamander (all much alike), are 

 excellent, as are Marblehead, Mammoth and Sunset, 

 which also seem identical. The Cos varieties could not 

 be distinguished. " 



Woven wire trellis, supported every ten feet upon 

 stakes, has been used two seasons as a pea support with 



satisfactory results, particularly with the half 

 Notes of dwarf kinds. In the early sorts, more de- 

 Peas, pends upon the particular strain than upon 



the name of the variety. A dozen sorts of 

 this extra early class are practically identical. Among 

 the second early sorts Quantity and Advance were most 

 productive, followed closely by Quality, Profusion, Mar- 

 ket Pride {Pride of llie Alarki't), Midsummer, Horsford 

 t^Horsford'' s Market), and Satisfaction. "As the varie- 

 ties in this group are more productive, and generally of 

 better quality than those of the extra early sorts, it is 

 only advisable to plant enough of the early kinds to 

 bridge over the week or ten days before the Advancer 

 and others of its class are ripe. Among eighteen late 

 kinds, the Everbearing was very productive, followed by 

 Stratagem, Abundance, Forty-fold, Yorkshire and John 

 Bull." 



Extensive variety tests have been made with potatoes. 

 "Owing to the premature drying up of the vines from 

 blight and drought, we are not able to judge accurately 



of the actual earliness of the varieties. 

 Varieties of Last season, Premium and Gardener( C^?; - 

 Potatoes. dcner's Early) ripened first, followed by 



Harvest Early. These are all of good 

 quality, but not very productive. Ripening within a 

 week of these sorts are Timpe's No. 4, which this year 

 produced 157 bushels; Early Rose, 150 bushels; Early 



BULLETINS. 317 



Ohio Queen, 133 bushels ; Maine Early, 133 bushels ; 

 Puritan Early, 126 bushels ; Putnam [Pii/nain' s Early), 

 120 bushels ; Timpe's No. 6, 113 bushels. Of the varie- 

 ties yielding over 100 bushels and ripening about August 

 ist, are Clark's No. i, Burpee's Early, Dandy, Delaware, 

 Hebron, Oxford, Faust's i88g. Ft. Collins No. 83, Gre- 

 gory No. 2, Ideal, Lee Favorite, New Queen, Queen 

 Valley (Queen of the Valley), Thorburn, Gregory No. i, 

 Morning Star, June Eating and Putnam Rose. All but 

 six of these varieties were grown last year, and, as con- 

 firming the accuracy of the test, it may be noted that 

 every one of the above old sorts was in the selected list 

 of last year, and that the lowest yield of any of them 

 was about 300 bushels. It m,iy be stated that the crop 

 this year averages from 35 to 40 per cent of what it was 

 in i88g. There is but slight difference in the quality of 

 these sorts, all being good to very good, except, perhaps. 

 Lee's Favorite, which is rather coarse and sometimes 

 watery. 



" Of the late sorts, White Elephant and Summit were 

 most productive, with Copper Mine, Brownell Winner, 

 Bannock, Empire State and Nameless No. 2 not far be- 

 hind. Red Star, Arizona, Lincoln [President Lincoln), 

 and Dakota Red were also productive. None of these 

 varieties are of high quality, and although valuable 

 market sorts, some others, better in quality, might be 

 selected for home use. 



" The Wild Mexican variety has been grown here for 

 a number of years, and has greatly increased in size and 

 yield. They eyes are rather deep, and it is too coarse 

 to be a valuable variety. The Solannm Janusii has 

 shown itself much less susceptible to improvement, and 

 we have been able to detect no increase in size, which is 

 about three-fourths of an inch in diameter." 



The season's experiments indicate that a change of 

 seed about once in three years is desirable. 



It is commonly thought that the seed end of a potato 

 gives more small potatoes than the middle or the stem 

 end. Professor Taft arrives at this conclusion : "The 

 test has now been conducted for two years, with five dif- 

 ferent varieties and under various conditions, but with 

 results that seem to us conclusive that a given weight of 

 the seed end is as valuable as an equal 



weight from the middle of the tuber. Seed Ends 



The average yield from the stem end, and Butt Ends. 



however, is considerably less than 

 from either of the other portions, the difference being 

 greater than the amount required for seed. This indi- 

 cates that when cutting to small pieces it is well not to 

 use the stem end, as the eyes being weak and poorly 

 developed, the crop will be lessened. Never use the 

 stem end of a potato for seed unless the piece is large 

 enough to include one or more strong eyes from the 

 middle of the tuber. By cutting seed lengthwise this is 

 secured. " 



An experiment to determine the most profitable dis- 

 tances for planting potatoes in the row led to the follow- 

 ing conclusions : " Single eyes and quarters of medium 

 sized potatoes may be placed in drills from a foot to 



