There is frequently a difference in growth of 25 per cent. in favor of plants from Puget Sound seed at the time of vegetation. This difference continues to be manifest for a considerable period, but diminishes as the season advances, until it becomes imperceptible sometime before maturity of the plants. In the crop, no difference is discernible between plants grown from Puget Sound or eastern seed, either in time of maturity or quality and quantity of crop. The superior vitality and vigor of plants from Puget Sound seed serves a useful purpose in enabling the plants to better resist insect enemies and diseases, but the qualities that have been developed by long and careful selection are still more important. Given the same qualities in both cases, the Puget Sound seed are more desirable than eastern seed, simply because of the greater vigor of the plants grown from it. If the Puget Sound growers exercise sufficient care in growing their stock, cabbage and cauliflower seed from that locality will become recognized as the best in the market".

Cauliflower Tests.

Puget Sound Cabbage and Cauliflower Seed.

Clarence M. Weed adds some important records concerning the treatment of certain plant diseases. He calls attention to the fact that the combination of insecticides and fungicides in the same spray is often effective. This practice originated with Mr. Weed.

Bordeaux mixture, as usual, gave remarkable results in checking black-rot in grapes. Mr. Weed's method of preparing and applying the fungicide is as follows: "This season we sprayed it first, April 16, before the leaves had appeared, with a simple solution of sulphate of copper, treating the posts and trellises as well as the vines. This was done to destroy the winter spores of the fungus. We next treated it May 17, with the Bordeaux mixture made by adding six pounds of copper sulphate and four pounds of lime to fifty gallons of water, instead of twenty-two gallons, as ordinarily recommended. We usually made it by filling our Nixon barrel machine, which holds fifty gallons, nearly full of water, and then adding three or four gallons of hot water, in which six pounds of copper sulphate crystals had been dissolved. The freshly slaked lime was then poured in, and after a thorough stirring, the mixture was ready for use. Sometimes, instead of the crystals we used powdered copper sulphate, in which case it was not necessary to heat water to dissolve it, the powder simply being put in the barrel of clear water, and was soon dissolved. A third and last application was made June 25, using the Bordeaux mixture again.

The treatment was very successful, saving to ripening a large proportion of the crop, while the fruit of the neighboring vineyards was wholly destroyed".

Experiments were made to check the quince leaf-spot by the use of Bordeaux mixture. "The results indicated that the treatment was effectual. But as our check trees were not seriously attacked, the experiment was not as conclusive as it might otherwise have been. Bordeaux mixture applied to apples, in order to prevent the occurrence of the scab, was found to seriously injure the fruit.

"Perhaps no experiment of the season was watched with more interest that that undertaken to learn whether the brown-rot (Monilia fructigena), attacking plums, cherries, peaches and related fruits, could be controlled by the application of copper solutions. So far as the records show, no such experiments had before been made, and the annual loss due to this disease undoubtedly amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In our treatment of the plum orchard, we began late in March by picking off and burying all the mummied plums on the trees. Then we sprayed them early in April (April 11), before the leaves came out, with a simple solution of copper sulphate; and twice during May (15th and 25th), the first time with London purple alone, and the second with a combination of London purple and the Bordeaux mixture, which treatment was repeated June 1. No further applications were made, except to one tree, which was sprayed with Bordeaux mixture July 16. After these sprayings the fruit was fairly well covered with the copper sulphate and lime, which stayed on, despite the many rains, until it ripened in September. At the time of picking, an undesirable amount was still present, so that it was necessary to wash the fruit.

This was done this year in clear water, but next year we shall try the vinegar solution already mentioned.

Bordeaux Mixture.

Quince Leaf-Spot.

Brown-Rot of Plums and Cherries.

"The results of the experiment, although not as encouraging as I could have desired, were sufficiently so to warrant its continuation through future seasons, with strong hopes of ultimate success. Although the meteorological conditions were unusually favorable for the rot, it did not appear until quite late, and injured only a small per cent. of the fruit - not nearly as much as usual".

Ohio Experiment Station #1

This bulletin contains general directions for spraying trees and plants for insect and fungous attacks, by Professor Weed, and Miss Freda Detmers gives illustrated " Directions for Collecting, Preserving and Studying Plants." Professor Weed gives a good discussion of the bark-lice of the apple and pear. Two species occur to a serious extent in Ohio, the oyster shell bark-louse of the apple,and the scurfy bark-louse (Chionaspisfurfurus) which attacks both apples and pears. "During the winter and early spring as many of the scales should be scraped off the trunk and larger branches as possible. On large trees this may be done by first scraping with some instrument like a hoe, and then thoroughly scrubbing with a scrub-brush or broom dipped in a solution made as follows: Add one part of crude carbolic acid to seven parts of a solution made by dissolving one quart of soft soap, or one-fourth of a pound of hard soap, in two quarts of boiling water. The scraping is especially desirable for the oyster shell species, and on large trees. The bark of young trees is so tender that they must be scraped carefully, if at all. A scrub-brush is the best thing to use for applying the soap mixture, as the bristles remove many scales which a cloth would slide over.

Then in May or June, soon after the young lice have hatched, the trees should be sprayed with kerosene emulsion. The emulsion must be thoroughly mixed, with none of the kerosene floating separately, or it is liable to injure the foliage. When the lice are young they are very readily destroyed by the emulsion".

Nevada Rose Pest.

Apple Tree Lice.

The buffalo tree-hopper Ceresa bubalus),a small greenish or yellowish bug about the shape of a beechnut (but only 1/3 inch long), is very injurious to apple twigs in some places. It punctures the twigs late in summer or early in the fall in the process of egg-laying. "It seems to me that the insects might be successfully fought just after hatching from the eggs, by spraying with kerosene emulsion. With this end in view, the infested trees should be carefully watched during May, and as soon as most of the eggs are hatched, the trees should be sprayed with kerosene emulsion. In those cases where the trees are infested by bark-lice, as well as the present pest, the same spraying may be made to kill both. By destroying the progeny of the eggs in this way, the crop of egg-laying specimens will be reduced, but it will not necessarily prevent the hoppers which develop in neighboring localities from invading the orchard to deposit eggs".