BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTHY. 321 



The success of the work with cauliflower and lettuce under glass 

 promises to be duplicated with cabbage and beets in the open. While 

 this work is slow and tedious the results justify the effort. Pure 

 strains of seed are as important and as valuable as pure strains of 

 live stock. 



The results so far accomplished are a pure strain of White Mala- 

 khof corn; a pure strain of early forcing cauliflower; an improved 

 strain of Grand Rapids Forcing lettuce; and two strains of garden 

 beets, which breed true to color and form. Promising results have 

 also been obtained with cabbage and tomatoes. The endeavor in 

 the work with tomatoes is to produce a forcing strain which shall 

 be a sure cropper, prolific, high colored, and distinctively adapted 

 for forcing purposes. The second line of endeavor is to obtain an 

 outdoor tomato of medium season, producing an abundant crop of 

 smooth, medium-sized, red tomatoes, ideal fruit for canning and 

 catsup making. The preliminary test of sorts, together with their 

 fitness for canning and catsup making, is well under way. More 

 than 1,000 cans were required in the work of 1910. 



Careful reciprocal crosses have been made with a number of sorts 

 possessing characters of the greatest merit, with the hope that not 

 only may new combinations result which are more valuable than any 

 we now possess, but that at the same time some of the fundamental 

 laws of plant breeding may be worked out. 



Variety trials. — As in previous years, samples of all seeds used in 

 the Congressional distribution of seeds were grown to determine their 

 purity and trueness to type in the trial grounds at the Arlington 

 Experimental Farm. This work alone involved the careful handling 

 of more than 2,000 samples of seed. Novel sorts offered by the trade 

 to the number of 500 were also included in the season's work. 



Bean investigations. — The work with beans has been more active 

 than during any previous season. Selection work for the purpose 

 not only of controlling disease, but for increasing the yield of field 

 beans, has been started. If one bean per pod or one pod per plant 

 can be added, the yield per acre will be increased 1 bushel per acre. 

 It is believed that this can easily be accomplished through selection 

 and attention to seed stock. 



During the year a large collection of beans from South America 

 was tested in comparison with several of the standard field and garden 

 sorts of the United States. The collection contains one or two pole 

 sorts of merit on account of their long season. 



Muskmelon investigations. — During the season of 1910 experi- 

 ments in cooperation with the Bureau of Chemistry were undertaken 

 to determine the influence of soil and climate upon the quality of 

 muskmelons. The season's work, which is considered preliminary, 

 clearly reveals the importance of providing sanitary and cultural 

 conditions which shall so far as possible provide comparable condi- 

 tions at all points at which the tests are being conducted. It is be- 

 lieved that pathological conditions are often determining factors, 

 as was apparently the case at one or two of the stations in this 

 experiment. 



23165°— AGR 1911 21 



