An Improvement in the Hydrometer Method for Making Mechanical Analyses of Soils

Experiment Station are briefly outlined, except for certain details of emasculation and pollination that are well known by all plant breeders. These points are as follows: ~. The temperature of the greenhouse at pollinating time is maintained above 68°P and below 75°P, if possible. 2. The relative humidity is kept very high by having all walks and soil under benches well watered. 3. The emasculation is done one to two days before the flowers normally shed their pollen and is followed immediately by pollination. 4. The pollination, made on any particular day, is accomplished by removing a pollen-covered stigma from a flower that has opened during the early morning and rubbing it over the surface of the stigma of an emasculated flower. The stigma is used because this is the easiest way of obtaining a quantity of viable pollen. Unless pollenbearing flowers are very scarce, only one pollination is made with a stigma. 5. Care is taken to prevent mutilation of the flower parts of the emasculated flowers as this would tend to cause their drying out and decrease the possibility of the pollen functioning. By strictly observing these few points, artificial pollination in 55 to 65% of the cases results in the formation of a pod containing from two to five, or even six, hybrid beans.--E. E. DowN. Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, East Lansing, Mich.