90 
Report of the Horticulturist of the 
As appears from the table, more conspicuously from the averages at 
the latter end of it, both the proportion of vegetation and the yields 
decreased in the main, as the drying of the cuttings increased. The 
yields of rows Nos. 6 to 10, however, of which the mean time of exposure 
was 8.6 days, and the mean loss 26.18 per cent, averaged slightly 
larger than those of Nos. 1 to 5. Nor did the proportion of vegetation 
appear to decrease until the cuttings had been exposed more than nine 
days and had lost twenty-five per cent of their weight. The yield 
calculated per hundred hills increased with the dryness of the cut- 
tings, but this is quite as likely due to the increased room given the 
plants by the smaller vegetation of the dried cuttings as to greater 
vigor from the result of the drying. The cuttings were planted one 
foot apart in rows three feet apart. 
As has already been mentioned, the early part of the season was 
exceptionally dry, less than two and a half inches of rain having fallen 
between May 1 and the first week in July. 
The deductions from this experiment are, obviously, that exposing 
cuttings to the air of a moderately dry room for a week or ten days 
before planting is neither detrimental to their vegetation nor pro- 
ductiveness, while the tendency may be toward a slight increase in 
yield. A longer exposure than ten days, however, is injurious. 
EXPEEIMENTS IN ROOT GROWTH. 
Under this head is reported: 
1. A study of the development of young corn roots, with especial 
reference to the effects upon them of early cultivation. 
2. An experiment intended to throw light upon the question whether 
cutting the roots of young corn plants is favorable or unfavorable to 
crop. 
3. An experiment intended to show whether the location of roots in 
the soil is governed more by temperature or fertility. 
The Growth of Young Corn Roots. 
On May 30, the roots of five corn plants, of which the seed had been 
planted eighteen days previously, were washed out and examined. The 
soil was a rich clay loam, and the average height, in the plants 
examined, of the tip of the tallest leaves raised erect, was ten and three 
fourths inches. The seed kernels, which were still intact, were two to 
two and a half inches below the surface. 
The longest root, and especially the one that had made the largest 
development of fibers, in each of the plants examined, was the radicle or 
the root that starts at the base of the kernel. This did not in any 
case grow directly downward, but inclined at an angle of somewhat 
