NOTES OF TOMATOES. 



i. Effects of breeding. The most important result obtained 

 from several years of experimentation with the tomato, is an 

 illustration of the value of careful and systematic selection of 

 stock. These results have been marked in other years, but never 

 to such an extent as in the present season.. Unusual care was 

 exercised in the selection of stock seed in 1889, and in the case 

 of the Ignotum careful breeding has been practiced for several 

 seasons. Our whole trial ground may be said to have been 

 planted with pedigree seed this year, for the stock was obtained 

 from our own selections of 1889, from special stock contributed 

 by the introducers of standard varieties, and from the originators 

 of the new and untried sorts. As a result, our plantation was 

 the most uniform which we have ever seen, with remarkably 

 regular and handsome fruits. This result alone is ample reward 

 for the endeavors of the five years through which our tomato 

 studies have been running. 



In our selections, we have invariably placed greater value upon 

 the character of the stock plant itself than upon individual fruits : 

 we have been impressed with the fact that seeds from a compara- 

 tively poor fruit upon a plant which bears many good fruits, give 

 better results than seeds from an unusually good fruit borne upon 

 a plant of indifferent character. This is quite the reverse of com- 

 mon practice, but it appears to be justified in our experience. 

 The following figures illustrate the point : This year we grew 

 two lots of the Volunteer under like conditions. One lot was 

 from commercial seeds, and the crop was in every way typical of 

 the variety. The other lot was grown from seeds obtained from 

 a small and inferior fruit (only Y\ in. in diameter) which was 

 taken from a plant bearing mostly large fruits. The yield 

 from the first lot — commercial seeds — previous to frost, was 

 6.7 lbs. per plant, with an average weight per fruit of 5.3 oz. 

 The yield from the second lot was 8.8 lbs. per plant, with an 

 average of 7.3 oz. per fruit. Similar results were obtained with 



