to meet the demands of his trade, a sort of "boarding crop." He has not made known his needs to the college or to the experiment station. When he has called he has only too often met with but scant encouragement. The horticulturist has not been in possession of the facts necessary for satisfactory replies, and the press of work in other fields has prevented his attacking the problems involved. Is it not time for the colleges to step out and take the lead in this great field as they have in pomology, in animal industry and and in farm crops? If we will, in the light of a clear conception of field conditions make a beginning and develop the work by the means suggested we will find that progress along one line will encourage progress along another. When the grower finds we are making special effort to serve him he will call upon us. open press stands ready to convey the word of our ability and willingness to the man in the garden. When he calls we will be able to transmit the word to the man higher up, and thus may we secure the necessary funds for salary and for equipment. Then will adequate research and adequate teaching be possible; then will vegetable gardening rise to the place in our collegate work that, in view of its importance, it deserves. An ever I. II. A PLAN OF COURSES IN VEGETABLE GARDENING FOR FOUR-YEAR STUDENTS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY. I Lect. (This is our For those interested in Home Gardening only. For those who desire a brief course for general training and V. G. 2. COMMERCIAL VEGETABLE GARDENING. (One term course). 2nd Term. 2 Lect. I Lab. Prerequisite Soils 1, which involves Botany and Agri. Chemistry. (Our present Hort. 25). This would be open to Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. To cover: 1. Scope and Geography of the subject. 2. Choice of location. 3. Equipment. 4. Management. 5. A brief consideration of each of the crops. III. For those who desire a fairly full knowledge of Vegetable Gardening. COMMERCIAL V. G. 3 and 4. continued. The fall laboratory will include harvesting, V. G. 5. VEGETABLE FORCING. Ist Term. V. G. 6. 2 Lect. I Our present SYSTEMATIC VEGETABLE CROPS. Ist Term. 1 Lect. 1 or 2 Labs. Prerequisite V. G. 3 and 4. Our present Hort. 27 dealing with History, Botany, and Types and Varieties of Crops. Separate Courses for One and Two-Year Men..... General Elementary Courses. General Advanced Courses. Vegetable Forcing. Home Gardening. Systematic Courses.. I (The data are not quite complete nor are courses strictly comparable. However, the figures give a good idea of the standing of the subject.) THE PRESIDENT: We have heard this very excellent paper on teaching vegetable gardening. Are there any remarks? If not, we will pass to the next, which is by Professor Crandall on "The Vitality of Pollen." THE VITALITY OF POLLEN. BY C. S. CRANDALL, State University, Urbana, Illinois. The length of time pollen will retain its vitality, and the period. of receptivity of stigmas are matters of some importance to those engaged in plant-breeding work. Accurate information as to the age limit of pollen for the species used, and especially as regards the optimum age, coupled with equally accurate knowledge of the limits of receptivity of stigmas, would go far towards eliminating those uncertainties which, in very many cases, attend efforts in crossing. That there are wide differences between plants of different species in these matters is a reasonable inference. No one set of rules could be formulated that would be equally applicable to all species. The points in question must be determined for each species separately, and, in making these determinations, the climatic factors, temperature, moisture, light and wind, must be given full consideration, because they are important and often may be the limiting factors. There are frequent references, in horticultural literature, to the duration of vitality of many different species, but the examples cited are mainly plants cultivated by florists, ornamental shrubs and trees, or wild plants of forest and field. Few references to the pollen of orchard or small fruit plants are found, and no records of definite experiments regarding the duration of vitality of the pollen of these plants. Mangin* gives the duration of vitality of pollen for 31 species arranged according to the order of duration, beginning with one day for Oralis acetosella and ending with 80 days for Narcissus pseudonarcissus and Picea excelsa. He concludes that there is no relation between the vitality of pollen and the nature of the flowers. Max Pfundt has given an interesting series of experiments testing the duration of vitality of pollen under the influence of air con taining varying degrees of moisture. This writer tabulates results with 117 species which show wide range of ability to endure high humidity. Rye pollen retained vitality but 12 hours under all the varying conditions to which it was subjected. Five species retained vitality but one day under all conditions. With some species the differences in duration of vitality of pollen when preserved in air dried over sulphuric acid, and in air in which 90 per cent of possible moisture was maintained, are not very great; with other species here are wide differences. Comparing air containing 30 per cent of moisture with air dried over sulphuric acid for 77 species, the reten tion of vitality was equal for sixteen species; vitality was retained longest in the dry air by thirty-five species and for the remaining twenty-six species the retention of vitality was longest in the air containing 30 per cent of moisture. With a very few species the result is reversed; thus pollen of Abutilon darwinii retained vitality 10 days in air containing 90 per cent of moisture and only 5 days in air dried over sulphuric acid; with Hippurus vulgaris the time of retention was 5 days in moist air and only 2 days in dry air. The maximum time of retention of vitality of pollen, as appears from the experiments by Pfundt, is reached by three species of Pinus, which, in ordinary dry air, retained vitality for an average of 69 days, and in air dried over sulphuric acid, an average of 275 days. A general conclusion drawn from the experiments is, that moist air operates injuriously, shortening the duration of vitality. In the experiments by Pfundt the recorded duration of vitality is based upon the ability of pollen grains to germinate. His work aims specifically at the duration of vitality of pollen under varying degrees of air moisture and is a valuable contribution to the knowledge of this subject. Plant breeding in the department of horticulture at the Illinois station has been limited to three groups of plants; apples, strawberries and sweet peas. While the chief aim has been to study the transmission of parental characters, record has been kept of the age of pollen used in each cross, and the number of hours between emasculation and pollination. In the following observations on the vitality of pollen the subject is treated as incidental to a larger problem and is not presented as a specific study of the duration of vitality. No effort has been made to determine the limits of duration, or to study in detail *Bul. Soc. Bot. France vol. 33 (1886). Jahrb. Wiss. Bot. (Pringsheim) 47 (1909-10) pp. 1-40. the several factors that plainly have direct bearing upon the subject. The basis upon which success or failure of pollination is recorded is not the germination of the pollen, but full maturity of the product of fertilization-the fruit. Records are available from which to go one step farther and take as a basis of successful pollination the germination of the final product-the seed; but for present purposes this has not been done, and the records here presented regard as successful those pollinations that resulted in ripe apples containing seeds, ripe strawberries with apparently good fruits, and, with sweet peas, pods containing matured seeds. Many of the failures recorded are, without doubt, due to no fault of the pollen, but to defective stigmas, injured ovaries, any one of several causes that might operate to prevent actual fertilization, or any one of several accidents liable to happen in the period between fertilization and full maturity of fruit. To better understand the often high percentage of failure in crossing sweet peas, it may be added, that choice of plants to be bred together has no reference to individual breeding qualities, but is governed entirely by the line of descent, and the manner in which certain characters have been transmitted. APPLES. Crossing varieties of apples in orchard has been attended with many discouragements on account of unfavorable weather conditions at flowering time. Frequently there is rain, low temperature, high wind and conditions generally unfavorable to flower development and to success in pollination. The vitality of pollen and stigmas is impaired, flowers do not open normally and the manual operations of crossing are performed with difficulty and discomfort. Under such conditions it is more the wonder that any success is achieved than that the percentage of failure is so high. On the other hand, working conditions may be ideal, but temperatures so high that the flowering period is unduly shortened, and such work as is done must be crowded into a week or less. Experience forces the conclusion that crossing apples, in the open, is too often unsatisfactory. The apple records given are summarized from the three seasons 1909, 1911 and 1912 and cover 6191 pollinations, of which 17.62 per cent were successful, giving 1091 fruits. Eighty-two per cent of the pollinations were between varieties of Malus malus, while 18 per cent were between varieties of Malus malus and various foreign species, among which are brunifolia, Arnoldiana, fastigiata, atrosanguinea and toringo. As the combination of Malus malus with the species named does not materially affect the final percentages, all pollinations are considered as one group. It may, however, be stated that the maximum of success rests with pollination of Malus prunifolia by Domine and Tolman Sweet; 34 pollinations by Domine and 24 by Tolman Sweet were all successful, and closely following are 33 pollinations by Ben Davis, which gave 32 fruits or 97 per |