264 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



THE TESTING OF VARIETIES. 



In answer to inquiries respecting our attitude towards the testing 

 of varieties, I append the following statements of the methods 

 which the Horticultural Division of the Cornell Experiment Station 

 has uniformly pursued. We refuse to test varieties simply because 

 they are new. Our basis of study is the monograph — the investi- 

 gation of a particular subject, rather than the indiscriminate grow- 

 ing of things which chance to be put upon the market in a given 

 year, and which have no relationship to each other aside from a 

 coincidence in date. When we take up a certain group of plants 

 for study, we endeavor to secure every variety of it, old or new. 

 These varieties are studied not only in the field, but botanical speci- 

 mens are invariably made of every one,"so that the experimenter has 

 specimens before him for leisurely study when the hurry of field 

 work and the excitement of bug catching are done. We are always 

 glad to receive the seed novelties of any year, but we do not agree 

 to report upon them or even to grow them. If we were to attempt 

 to grow them all, we should simply be making a museum of curiosi- 

 ties, and we would have no time left for investigation and experi- 

 ment. More than this, we have to admit that we are incompetent 

 to make a test of all novelties. An opinion of a novelty is of no 

 value unless the person who gives it is well acquainted with all, or 

 at least most, of the other varieties of the plant, and we find it 

 impossible to know all garden plants. There are many kinds of 

 fruits and vegetables with which we have only a passing acquaint- 

 ance, and it would be presumptuous for us to affect a critical knowl- 

 edge of any variety of them, simply because it happened to be 

 introduced in any given year. 



Seedsmen and others, therefore, must not expect reports upon the 

 novelties which they send us, unless the varieties happen to be of 

 plants to which we are giving explicit study. Roots and trees 

 which are sent us are always planted as a part of our collection, and 

 they are given the same attention as other parts of our plantation ; 

 but we do not agree to test them for publication, although we are 

 always glad to make a written statement of their behavior. 



L. H. BAILEY. 



