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has developed an interesting correlation between the color of the young foliage of the vines and the color of their fruit. The seedlings while young were separated into two lots, one having yellowish young shoots, the other reddish shoots. Without exception the fruiting vines of the former produce light-colored fruit, while the latter produce dark fruit.

Field surveys bring out the following facts: Interest in the Rotundifolia grapes is increasing; outside of local consumption and limited shipments for immediate consumption and table use the Rotundifolia grapes are used entirely for wine purposes for which white varieties only are in demand; the dark varieties bear best; the adaptability of varieties to localities has not been determined; a great difference in the saccharine and acid content of the several varieties exists, but no great difference in this respect is noted in the varieties themselves grown in different localities; black-rot injury on Rotundifolia is spreading rapidly.

FRUIT-DISTRICT INVESTIGATIONS.

There have been no material changes during the past year in the several lines of work which comprise the fruit-district "group" of projects. Mr. H. P. Gould has continued in charge of these investigations, aided by Mr. W. F. Fletcher.

ADAPTABILITY OF FRUIT VARIETIES TO ENVIRONMENT.-In order to meet a constantly growing demand for information relative to different fruit-growing regions, the conditions influencing successful fruit culture in them, the varieties best adapted to those conditions, etc., it has been the policy for several years past to make a general study each season of some important fruit-growing region which has not previously been investigated in the present connection. Some of the important sections of the western slope of Colorado were thus investigated during the past year.

As previously noted, similar investigations have been in progress for several years in the region which comprises that portion of Oklahoma between the Ozarks and the Great Plains, that part of Kansas which lies east of the Great Plains, and the southeastern part of Nebraska, and these investigations were continued during the season of 1910.

Though adverse climatic conditions in the spring resulted in light crops in most of the orchards, fairly good progress was made in the accumulation of data relating to the adaptability of fruit varieties. It is hoped that one more season's work will complete the field investigations of this region.

DRY-LAND RANCH FRUIT GARDENS.-The garden at Akron, Colo., maintained in cooperation with the Office of Dry-Land Agriculture Investigations, has not been materially increased during the past year. Several varieties each of raspberries, strawberries, currants, and gooseberries were planted.

The garden at present consists of 162 fruit trees comprising a number of varieties of apples, pears, peaches, plums, and cherries.

A large number of small fruits, including in addition to those just mentioned blackberries, dewberries, juneberries, buffalo berries, and various others, have been planted. The growth is fully satisfactory,

and they are in a more promising condition this season than ever before. The greatest difficulty appears to be in getting the small fruits started. Once fairly started they seem to persist, though in most cases it is not until the second or third season after planting that they have become sufficiently well established to make much growth.

A considerable number of plants of all the small fruits mentioned are now getting well established and are in a promising condition. Of the cane fruits the blackberries are apparently better able to withstand the conditions than any of the raspberry varieties thus far tried.

FOREST-RANGER FRUIT AND ORNAMENTAL GARDENS.-Substantial progress has been made in the forest-ranger work. As previously reported, the apple trees for distribution to the various ranger stations were propagated and grown at the Arlington Experimental Farm. The distribution was made in the spring of 1911 and included 2,680 apple trees, which were sent to 165 different ranger stations selected in cooperation with the Forest Service. The number of trees sent to each station ranged from 10 to 19, and 11 varieties of apples were represented in the distribution.

The distribution already made practically completes the present plans for this work except that a few more stations are to be supplied later.

MISCELLANEOUS POMOLOGICAL WORK.

PECAN INVESTIGATIONS. The pecan investigations, under the charge of Mr. C. A. Reed, have been continued mainly along the lines followed in previous years. A considerable amount of orchard data has been obtained from field studies and observations; a careful comparison of the merits of the leading varieties has been made; specimens of a number of new varieties have been examined and reports made to the growers as to their merits; addresses before associations of nut growers have been delivered; and much information has been disseminated through correspondence and personal interviews.

The work will be continued and extended. The tabulation and correlation of the results of three years' experiments in the grading and cracking of specimen lots of the leading varieties will be given special attention in the immediate future. Careful comparisons of seedling pecans grown in the various States will also be made. Orchard observations as to the bearing of individual trees will be begun during the coming season in order to establish superior strains of some of the leading pecan varieties.

CITRUS-FRUIT IMPROVEMENT THROUGH BUD SELECTION.-The investigation of the possibilities of the improvement of citrus fruits through bud selection begun in California in 1909-10 has continued under the charge of Mr. A. D. Shamel, and has followed the lines of the preceding season. The methods of work adopted last year have proved to be satisfactory for securing and recording individual-tree data, illustrations, and descriptive notes. The data obtained this second season with the Washington Navel orange and Marsh pomelo corroborate the results of the first season; the variation in the total yield and the commercial quality of the fruit borne by individual trees under comparative environmental conditions were even more

strikingly shown by the past season's work. The trees that gave the largest yields of fruit in 1910 produced the largest yields in 1911 without exception. The trees bearing the smallest yields of fruit in 1910 produced the smallest vields in 1911. The most productive trees bore the best and most uniform fruit, i. e., the largest proportion of first-grade fruits of valuable sizes, the small-yielding trees bearing fruit of a poorer grade, of extreme sizes, and of variable quality which is of less commercial value than the higher grade and more uniformly sized fruits of the high-yielding trees.

A plat of 100 Eureka lemon trees, typical of the groves of this variety in California, located near Corona, has been selected for study by the same methods as those used for the study of the navel orange and pomelo varieties. The quantity, quality, and other characteristics of the fruit borne by the individual trees in this plat will be determined by regular monthly pickings.

An increasing number of fruit growers in California are undertaking a systematic study of plats of citrus trees by methods similar to those developed by the bureau investigations. As a rule, plats of 100 trees under uniform conditions are selected, the fruit of each tree being picked, assorted, and sized, each grade and size being weighed and the fruits counted, so that an accurate record is kept of the yield and commercial quality of fruit from each individual tree. These observations on the important varieties of citrus fruits, made under widely differing soil and other conditions, should add materially to the information on this subject and assist in the practical application of improved scientific methods of bud selection in replacing the unprofitable trees with more uniform and productive strains or varieties of citrus fruits.

EXPERIMENTAL GARDENS AND GROUNDS.

The work of caring for the greenhouses and grounds of the department has continued in charge of Mr. E. M. Byrnes.

CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR OF BUILDINGS. The area under glass on the department grounds has been materially increased during the year by the addition of a temporary greenhouse to care for a collection of citrus fruits and of another for the experimental work of the Physical Laboratory. As a precautionary measure, in case there should be a break in the underground steam main which now furnishes heat to the greenhouses from the central power station, two large secondhand boilers were installed adjacent to the greenhouses. These two boilers were turned over to the department by the Superintendent of the Capitol Buildings and Grounds without cost other than that incident to moving them and setting them in their present position. Such repairs were made to the older range of greenhouses as were necessary, and five of them were given a coat of paint inside and out. Fire protection was installed in the frame buildings on the north fronts of the ranges of greenhouses.

GREENHOUSE OPERATIONS.-There are now 27 greenhouses devoted to the propagation of trees, plants, and fruits collected by the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction; general hybridization work; seed testing; experimental work with a collection of citrus and other tropical fruits; experimental work conducted by the Office of Crop Physi

ology and Breeding; propagation of plants for ornamenting the grounds of the department, for miscellaneous experimental work, and for special and congressional distribution; experimental work with vegetables; and plant-breeding work, which is satisfactorily proceeding with gratifying results. A bureau bulletin was published during the year as the result of this work. In one of the houses the chrysan themums for the annual exhibition were grown. The exhibition was opened to the public on the morning of November 2, 1910, and closed on the evening of November 9, the house being open from 10 a. m. to 9 p. m. daily. Interest in these shows increases each year, and they are looked forward to by the public both in and out of Washington. After the exhibition was closed the flowers were cut and distributed to the hospitals in the city, as heretofore.

PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION.-During the year 110,843 plants, representing 64 species and varieties, were propagated and distributed; 95,000 strawberry plants and 25,090 grapevines were packed and forwarded from the packing room for congressional distribution.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE GROUNDS.-Worn-out asphalt walks measuring 1,600 square yards were removed and relaid with concrete and 55 square yards of concrete walks repaired. Worn portions of the macadam roads were repaired and all macadam roads were sprinkled with waste sulphite liquor and an oil emulsion for the purpose of laying the dust and binding the surface so as to preserve it. The lawns were treated with 144 cubic yards of thoroughly decomposed stable manure, 7 tons of shredded cattle manure, and 6 tons of bone meal; 508 cubic yards of topsoil was used on a portion of the north front of Laboratory B to bring it to grade and the graded surface was seeded in grass. During the season the lawns were mowed, and such other work was done on the grounds as was required to maintain them in good condition.

ORNAMENTAL PLANTINGS.-A collection of 13,400 standard sorts of crocus, hyacinth, tulip, and narcissus bulbs, and 5,700 pansy plants were planted in the beds in the autumn for display in the early spring. A collection of 15,463 bedding plants, in 32 species and varieties, and 963 tropical plants, in 29 species and varieties, were planted in beds in the spring; also 106 seedling roses which originated in our greenhouses were planted for trial.

WORK DURING THE PRESENT FISCAL YEAR.-It is proposed to extend the frame shed at the north end of the greenhouses 32 feet to protect the steam pipes heating the citrus house; lay a concrete floor in the new building for the boilers, and 60 by 10 feet of concrete roadway for delivery of fuel to the boiler house; paint 17 greenhouses inside and outside; paint the paroid roofs of offices and work rooms and storage sheds; remove the worn-out asphalt walk, the oyster-shell and ash walks on the site of the old trial grounds and north front of Laboratory B; fill in the walks with topsoil and grade and seed in grass.

The work of hybridization, the experimental work with florists' crops and vegetables, the propagation of trees, plants, and shrubs, and the general care of the grounds are to be continued along the same lines as heretofore.

FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION.

The Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction has remained during the past year under the direction of Mr. David Fairchild, agricultural explorer, assisted by Mr. P. H. Dorsett, plant introducer; Mr. Frank N. Meyer, agricultural explorer in the field; Mr. Peter Bisset, plant introducer; Mr. G. W. Oliver, plant propagator; Mr. Steven C. Stuntz and Mr. H. C. Skeels, botanical assistants; Mr. R. A. Young, scientific assistant; Mr. R. L. Beagles, Mr. J. A. Rankin, Mr. E. C. Green, Mr. Edward Simmonds, and Mr. Roy Mann, superintendents of plant-introduction gardens; Mr. H. F. Schultz, in charge subtropical introductions; and Mr. Edward Goucher, Mr. John H. Allison, Mr. W. H. F. Gomme, and Mr. Henry Klopfer, propagators.

This office has so perfected its machinery of rapid plant introduction and extended its network of correspondence throughout the world that it is now in a position to obtain with unusual dispatch living plant material on the request of plant breeders and experimenters, and, through the hearty cooperation of the pathologists and entomologists of the department, introduce it free from dangerous pests or parasitic fungi and get it into the hands of the experimenter in the form of well-grown plants with every possible chance of living in their favor.

The extent of cooperation with other offices of the bureau is shown by the number of successful experiments which other offices are carrying on with this introduced material. It is difficult to give any adequate idea of the large and growing corps of volunteer experimenters which is being interested in the careful and fascinating work of finding uses for the newly introduced plants and determining their climatic and soil requirements. Some of the most important observations in regard to the establishment of these new plants. are coming from skillful and observant amateurs, and by the publication of its mimeographed bulletin of new introductions this office is stimulating a taste for this preliminary testing of new things that is sure to yield useful results.

Notwithstanding the fact that a closer discrimination has been exercised, the number of plant introductions during the year amounted to 3,045, or about 10 introductions for every working day.

AGRICULTURAL EXPLORATIONS IN CENTRAL ASIA.-During the year Mr. F. N. Meyer has finished the most difficult piece of agricultural exploration work of a pioneer character that has yet been undertaken by the department. He has spent seven months in the desert region of eastern or Chinese Turkestan, which lies between the Karakoram Range of the northern Himalayas and the great Tien Shan Range of western Mongolia. On foot or in native carts he has gone from oasis to oasis of this desert region studying the native fruits and grains. This has been accomplished with much difficulty, but he has made so careful a survey of the possibilities of the area that it will probably be unnecessary to go over this ground again. Mr. Meyer crossed the Tien Shan Range, passed through Kuldja and along the northern slopes of the Altai Mountains, and worked his way into northern Siberia, where he will collect seeds of forage crops and grains.

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