22 DIRECTOR’S REPORT OF THE 
DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE. 
Distribution of Station strawberries and raspberries.— In the 
Spring of 1908 the Station distributed four new varieties of red 
raspberries and three new varieties of strawberries. These 
varieties were the incidental outcome of the experimental work in 
plant breeding. Bulletin No. 298 gives full descriptions of the 
seven new varieties and briefly discusses the objects of the breeding 
work which brought them forth. The objects, briefly stated, are: 
(1) The study of the correlations of the different characters of 
plants; (2) investigations of the laws of inheritance and variability ; 
(3) the adaptation of plants to new environment; (4) the develop- 
ment of hardy plants; (5) the development of resistance to disease; 
(6) improvement through crossing and hybridizing as a basis for 
generalizations as to the use of these operations in plant breeding; 
(7) systematic selection from pure-bred seedlings; (8) to discover 
what botanical and horticultural groups of the several fruits andl 
vegetables best transmit their characters to their offspring either as 
pure-breds or in crosses; and (Q) incidental to the above lines of 
research, the production of new varieties. 
The relation of weather to the setting of fruit; with blooming 
data for 866 varieties of fruit—In Bulletin No. 299 attention is 
called to the fact that the relations of weather to the formation and 
development of fruit have been lost sight of in the current discus- 
sions of the failures of blossoms to set fruits. Data are given to 
show that unfavorable weather is the predominating one of the 
several factors which cause the loss of fruit crops during blooming 
time. The following constituents of weather, with their relations 
to the setting of fruit, are discussed: Late frosts, wet weather, 
temperature, daily range in temperature, sunny weather, wind, and 
fogs. Means of controlling weather are discussed, the selection of 
locations with reference to general and local climate receive atten 
tion, and the fact that varieties of fruits may be selected with refer- 
ence to their ability to withstand injurious weather is given a some- 
what full discussion. The time of blooming is a particularly im- 
portant period in the growing of fruits as to the welfare of crops 
regarding other factors than weather; as, to secure proper cross- 
fertilization, and in their relations to insects and fungi. The bloom- 
ing data for the varieties of fruit grown on the Station grounds, 
866 in all, are therefore given in this bulletin with a discussion of 
the uses to which such information may be put. 
