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176 " [AssEMBLY 
We have also sought to make a complete and accurate description : 
of every distinct variety grown. It has been our aim to note and de- 
lineate the peculiar characteristics of each variety in such a way that 
the intelligent gardener may be able to determine from these descrip- 
tions whether or not his varieties are true to name, but our work in 
this line must be deferred for further study before publication. — 
We regret that we have not accomplished all that we hoped for in 
this direction. A lack of time has somewhat prevented the very 
thorough study of varieties that we desired to make. The cold and 
wet summer also nearly thwarted our plans with the cucurbitaceous 
plants, while our eagerness to discover a preventive for the cabbage- 
worm (pieris rapae) tempted us to use applications that proved in- 
jurious to many varieties of cabbage and fatal to afew. A mixture of 
seed purchased has also at times made it impossible for us to certainly 
identify some varieties. Despite these embarrassments, however, we 
feel that we have made a good beginning in this work. 
Last, though not least, we have hoped that a careful study of the 
laws of growth, as illustrated in our varied exhibition of plant life, 
might suggest ideas that would prove of value in the more important 
work of future experimentation. 
Our work has not been confined to a test of varieties. We have 
carried on quite an extensive series of experiments in different branches 
of horticulture, the results of which will appear in their appropriate 
laces. 
; In order to economize space we have condensed as far as possible the 
more important data. gathered from our work in tabular form, adding 
such explanations, remarks and suggestions as seem appropriate. 
- In case the yields of some of our varieties should seem meagre to 
some gardeners into whose hands this report shall fall, we add by way 
of apology that the large number of varieties grown could not be ac- 
commodated within the limits of the former station garden, and we 
were therefore compelled to appropriate a portion of the farm that had 
not previously been devoted to garden purposes, and which was not, 
in consequence, in a thorough state of preparation. 
We regret that we have not more to offer upon the subject of fruits. 
Few of the fruit plants set out in the spring of 1882 are as yet old 
enough to bear, and we must acknowledge also that our list of the 
newer varieties is as yet quite incomplete. 
It is our desire to grow and test all new fruits as they are brought 
out, and in this we must ask the co-operation of fruit growers, as very 
many of the new varieties are not offered for sale until they have already 
been well tested. Any sample fruit plants of promising varieties sent 
to us for trial by the originators will receive careful attention, and 
will be reported upon in due time according to their merits under our 
conditions. We have already received some gifts of this kind, which 
are duly acknowledged in the report of the director. 
BEET. 
Our list of beets, including the sugar beets and mangels, embraced 
thirty-one named samples. The seeds were planted April 26, in rows 
ten feet long, and twenty-one inches apart, two rows of each sample. —__ 
In the first of the two rows one hundred seeds, or, speaking more ac- 
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