duce a pollen of high germinating power and also an extremely vigorous pollen tube.

In attempting to sum up the results of this set of experiments we find many apparently conflicting facts. If our experiments with fifteen per cent solutions of dextrose alone were considered, we could easily conclude that phosphoric acid has a decidedly detrimental effect upon the longevity of the pollen of the peach, while if we used only the results obtained from a ten per cent cane sugar solution we would say that the same fertilizer has a decided effect in tending to add to the longevity of the pollen.

These conficting results can not be reconciled with the data at hand and further work must be done before we can arrive at any conclusion as regards the effect of phosphoric acid fertilizers upon the pollen of the peach.

However, I believe that we can venture the assertion that potash fertilizers are of prime importance in giving us a peach pollen of high vitality and reasonable longevity, and that combinations of nitrogen and potash fertilizers tend to produce a peach pollen of high germinating power, but of comparatively short life.

In regard to the effect of mineral fertilizers upon the stigma of the peach we believe that we may safely say that while potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen are all necessary to produce a highly receptive stigma, potash is the most important of the three.

From the behavior of the germinating pollen grains in the above set of experiments it would appear that a ten per cent cane sugar solution is a much more desirable medium in which to germinate peach pollen than is a five, ten, or fifteen per cent solution of dextrose. It is also evident that we have not as yet found the culture medium that would be most satisfactory for this work.*

While the above set of experiments has not given us clean cut, conclusive results, we believe they clearly indicate that the three elements, nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid each have an important part to play in the problem of pollination of the peach. Just what these definite parts are is a subject for future experi

mentation.

THE PRESIDENT: I know there are a number of men here who are interested in the question of fertilizers for fruits, and I think we might devote a few minutes to this very interesting paper. Was there any difference in the vigor of the trees that had these different fertilizers?

PROFESSOR MCCUE: There was a vast amount of difference in the vigor.

THE PRESIDENT: What trees had the most vigor? Was there any correlation between vigor and the life of pollen, for instance? PROFESSOR MCCUE: I do not believe there was. For instance, one of the plots that had greatest longevity was fertilized with potash alone. That was not one of the most vigorous at the time, though it had been.

"We suggest the use of an eight percent solution of cane sugar to which a small percentage of malic acid has been added.

A MEMBER: Was there any possibility of reviving pollen? PROFESSOR MCCUE: We tried sulphuric acid only after the germination had failed. We did not get any benefit from it. PROFESSOR DORSEY: At what temperature did you make your germination tests?

PROFESSOR MCCUE: About seventy degrees F.

PROFESSOR DORSEY: Did you make an effort to control this? PROFESSOR MCCUE: No, it was ordinary room temperature. PROFESSOR CRANDALL: While we have done no work with fertilizers, it has become fixed that there is a definite relation between vigorous growth and vitality of pollen. In work with strawberries and sweet peas, over-stimulated plants in pretty rich soil tended to produce poor pollen. We have had many sweet pea plants planted on very rich soil that are extremely productive in peduncles, but not in flowers. When they did produce flowers, they were not fertile. That does not always hold throughout the whole season. The late flowers may be fertile, but in general high fertility does not tend to produce good pollen.

PROFESSOR MCCUE: This set of experiments is merely prelim inary. Methods naturally were somewhat crude, and there are a great many things in methods of procedure that will have to be changed.

PROFESSOR DORSEY: Are you dealing with any varieties of peaches partially or totally self-sterile, and did the different ferti lizers have any effect?

PROFESSOR ACCUE: No, our fertilizer experiment was all with Elberta. I suspect that there is some trouble arising from selfsterility in certain varieties of peaches. The behavior of some varieties in our variety orchard this past year would lead one to that conclusion. Some of them did not have a set of fruit in proportion to the amount of bloom which they put forth in the spring. PROFESSOR DORSEY: I believe the bagging method is as reliable with the peach as it has been shown to be with the grape.

DOCTOR STEWART: I would like to ask Professor McCue if he kept records of the relation between fertilization and abundance of flower production with those treatments.

PROFESSOR MCCUE: Only in a general way. We found no method whereby we could do it absolutely, and it is only relative. I might say in this respect that the plot fertilized with what we call double potash single, 100 pounds K,O, annually gave the greatest amonut of blossoms. Those results could not be depended upon this year because the orchard was very badly injured in February by a freeze, and certain plots did not bear fruit at all.

DOCTOR STEWART: I might say we have had very striking correlations between fertilization and amount of blossoms on the trees. That is, the properly fertilized plots in the apple have blossomed more fully than those not so fertilized. The difference would be as striking in number of blossoms as in vield. These have averaged for four or five years in some cases from three to four or five times the amount of fruit of the unfertilized checks.

THE PRESIDENT: I would like to say that I believe there is a correlation between supply of moisture to the tree at blossoming time and setting of fruit. I fancy that a tree in soil pretty well supplied with moisture at setting time would be much more likely to set fruit than a tree deficient in moisture at setting time. We experienced one spring a very severe drought just about blooming time. We had a small orchard of Wealthy apples in sod, but on one side all of the first row of trees was just alongside a piece of cultivated ground. On the other side of the orchard there was a piece of ground in sod. The trees bloomed profusely, but on the row one side of which was in sod, the other in cultivated ground, the fruit set abundantly. On the rest of the orchard including the other outside row that was in sod there was a very light crop of fruit. In that case, the non-setting was due to a lack of moisture at just that time. We shall not have Professor Gourley's paper.

NOTES ON STORING APPLES.

BY J. H. GOURLEY,

Experiment Station, Durham, New Hampshire.

General interest in the storing of apples for winter and spring sale has been aroused because of the low prices offered for a good grade of fruit at picking time. Several experiment station bulletins, articles published in the agricultural press and elsewhere, have given valuable information on the modus operandi of the storing of the fruit.

It was with this idea in mind that a preliminary test was arranged. in the fall of 1908 by the Ohio Experiment Station, at which time the writer was a member of the staff of that station. The results herein given are suggestive only, as a carefully planned experiment was not conducted following this test.

The plan of the experiment was to determine the relative value of open and closed packages for the storing of apples.

A half bushel of apples was placed in a bushel slat crate such as is used for potatoes, thus giving a free passage of air through the package. An upright partition was used to allow another variety in the same package without contact. A wooden box constructed of rather thin material and lined with paper having a partition inserted for dividing the two varieties of apples, was used for the closed package.

Thus two varieties were placed in each package and twenty varieties were used in the test, making ten packages for each method. Four varieties were placed in a tight box lined with paper, and each apple was wrapped. This test was not on a large enough scale to determine the relative value of this method. (It has been shown, however, by various investigators to be a decided advantage.)

The test was conducted in the cold storage plant at the State Reformatory, Mansfield, Ohio. It extended from October 27, 1908, to December 11, 1909, thirteen and one-half months in all. Observations were made November 27, December 23, March. 11, May 21, September 24, and December 11, or about an average of every two months. Each apple was examined and at any sign of decay it was eliminated, so the figures show the amount of rot, but the excessive shrinking of the fruit would have eliminated many other specimens. The shrinking in the open packages was very much more pronounced in every case than in the tight package, as would be expected. The per cent of rot was also higher in the open than closed boxes. Susceptibility to scald was shown by York Imperial, Lankford, Fallawater, Stark, Mann, Rome, Ben Davis, in the order named. The varieties showing the most shrinking were Jonathan, Red Canada, Grimes, Salome, Moyer, and Fallawater.

Some of the specimens were not perfect when they went in the test, thus making deductions somewhat complicated. The blemishes that were present were scab and curculio marks. The longer the apples remained in storage the more evident it became that any blemish is detrimental to good storage. Rot did not seem to have its origin around these blemishes much more than elsewhere; however moulds developed on the scab, but the most noticeable objec tion was the shrinking of the skin and flesh about these spots. The first observation, a month subsequent to storage, showed this effect and it became more noticeable and the specimens more unsightly at every subsequent observation.

The temperature varied each day, ranging from 34 degrees F. to 40 degrees F., but most of the time was 35 degrees F.

The following figures give the number of apples in each package, the number and per cent showing rot at the end of six and threequarter months and thirteen and one-half months, respectively.