New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 429 



that crossed plants are less susceptible to the attack of diseases and 

 physiological troubles. Varieties of wax beans are known to re- 

 sist the anthracnose disease for a few years, and then succumb to 

 its attack. Is this increasing damage by the disease due to a de- 

 crease in vigor, brought on by the methods of seed propagation, 

 or have more virulent forms of the disease arisen which are 

 capable of overpowering formerly resistant plants ? This subject 

 is beyond the theme of the author; nevertheless, this phase of the 

 influence of crossing is too important to be overlooked. 



TOMATO EXPEEIMENTS. 



Erom previous work in crossing tomatoes, Hedrick, of this 

 Station, was of the opinion that hybrid plants produced a greater 

 quantity of fruit than the varieties used as parents. With this 

 suggestion as a basis for work, the author in 1907 commenced an 

 experiment in order to determine whether crossing increased the 

 yield of tomatoes, and if so, how much ? 



Methods of procedure. — For the insurance of a cross which was 

 wide enough to give appreciable results and at the same time was 

 not too wide, the Livingston Stone and the Dwarf Aris'tocrat 

 varieties were selected. The fruit of these varieties is identical in 

 color and so similar in shape that one can not separate them by 

 inspection, and the shape and the size of the leaves are as similar 

 as the fruits. The vines, however, are very distinct in stature, 

 one being a standard and the other a dwarf. If the Livingston 

 Stone is one of the parents of the Dwarf Aristocrat, as has been 

 suggested by E. C Green, an Ohio tomato breeder, the similarity 

 of certain characters would be expected. A third variety, Hed- 

 rick, a strain of the Livingston Stone, which originated at the 

 Michigan Agricultural College, was also used in the experiment. 

 From previous tests and in its behavior in the following crosses, 

 no great difference was found in the yields of this variety and its 

 progenitor ; in fact, they are so near alike that a good systematist 

 could not separate them. 



In making the first crosses for this experiment, it was the in- 

 tention of the writer to make reciprocal crosses, but the plan was 



