234 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETINS. 



This experiment is only initiative. It -will be continued and varied in suc- 

 ceeding years with the addition of all European varieties. Two of the varieties 

 purchased are not tomatoes : the tree tomato of Jamaica, which is evidently 

 some solanum of the egg-plant sort and which does not fruit until the second 

 year, and the strawberry tomato or winter cherry, Fhysalis puhesceiis, the 

 decumbent '-ground cherry" of our fields. The most noticeable feature of 

 the tomatoes is the great similarity of most of the kinds. Upon close exam- 

 ination, one observes that all the larger varieties are exceedingly variable, — it 

 is difficult to select a tyj^e. I imagine that this variation is due to the unfixity 

 of varieties rather than to mixing from cross-fertilization. In fact, Professor 

 W. W. Tracy finds that plants grown from cuttings from one parent vary in 

 the same manner, though not so extensively, as those grown from seeds. 

 With this fact before us we can appreciate the imjiossibility of securing new 

 and permanent varieties from a few years of selection. Seedsmen grow the 

 same variety from different "stocks" of seeds. They select according to 

 different models. As a consequence, these stocks sometimes soon ap; ear 

 under the names of new varieties, although they may have gained no fixity,. 

 nor have been widely developed. In the synopsis on a succeediug page, I have 

 expressed my judgments as to the systematic merits of varieties. These Judg- 

 ments were drawn from this year's experiment alone, and although I have 

 spent weeks in the critical study of the varieties, I have not been able to reach 

 satisfactory results in many cases. Another year's study may reveal many 

 errors. Different weather and different treatment, with seeds from different, 

 sources, may make many changes necessary. I have reduced the list of 

 varieties nearly one-half. I am confident that this reduction will need to be 

 reduced nearly another half upon further study. It is probable that some of 

 our varieties have not been true to name. 



I have also endeavored to present in the synopsis a systematic and scientific 

 classification of varieties. 



Training. — Three methods of training were employed this year, and another 

 method last year. All the experimental tomatoes were tied to one, two or three 

 stakes about four feet high. This method has many disadvantages. It requires 

 much labor to tie the plants, a labor which must be repeated at short intervals 

 throughout the growing season. The tomatoes do not ripen evenly and early 

 and it requires extraordinary time and labor to pick them from the dense mass 

 of stems and foliage. Although the outlay for the stakes is small, this method 

 of training is still the most expensive of the four. Last year we laid old boards 

 lengthwise the rows and close to the plants, supporting them upon pieces of 

 scantling or blocks laid upon the ground, and placed straw ujDon the boards. 

 This method kept the tomatoes clean, but it apjDcared to increase the rot. It 

 certainly caused the lower ripe tomatoes to rot prematurely. In our market 

 patch this year we adopted two sorts of racks. The first Avas a separate rack* 

 for each plant. A stake was driven on either side of the plant, about fifteen 

 inches from it, and leaning so as to make an angle of about twenty degrees 

 with the perpendicular. Upon these stakes three cross-slats were nailed, in the 

 manner of a ladder. The plant was allowed to lop upon the racks. It was 

 found necessary to tie it, however, and even then branches slipped off or broke 

 themselves over the slats. The second of these racks was continuous through- 

 out the row. About every six or eight feet a stout stake was driven on either 

 side of the row and fifteen inches from the plant, the stakes when firmly 

 driven standing some over a foot high. A strip of old boards was nailed near 



