380 EXPERIMENT STATION— BULLETINS. 



All of the new varieties grown for the first time this year seem valuable 

 and well worthy of cultivation. 



Of these varieties Glen Cove, Burpee, Bay State, Raiuson, Volunteer, 

 Hallock, and Americus Hybrid, Faust, are much alike and are fine, large 

 tomatoes. 



The Americus averages a trifle larger than the others, and was the earliest; 

 Volunteer was a little later but was more productive. 



Among the older varieties the Ignotum deserves special mention. This 

 tomato was obtained as a sport from Eiformige Dauer. This year it exhibited 

 some tendency to revert, but it furnished us the largest and finest fruits we 

 had. They were thick, solid and quite smooth. One of the earliest to ripen, 

 the plants remained vigorous throughout the season, notwithstanding the 

 dry weather, and still bore a number of green fruits when killed by the frost. 

 The variety was tested by quite a number of specialists and without exception 

 they spoke favorably of it. Prof. Goff, of the N. Y. Experiment Station, 

 writes: "Although the fruits were not very uniform, some were as fine as 

 anything in the shape of a tomato I have ever seen ; of good size, remark- 

 ably solid and perfectly smooth. With a few seasons' selection it will 

 doubtless be unsurpassed." 



Mr. A. I. Root, Medina, Ohio, speaks in equally high terms of it. 



Effect of Using Seeds from First Ripe Fruits. 



Fifty-two varieties were planted in duplicate, six plants being grown from 

 seeds of the first ripe fruits of 1887, and the six adjoining hills from seeds 

 selected some two weeks later. 



The result as affecting the individual varieties is shown by the table, those 

 grown from the first ripe fruits being designated "a." 



Compiling the weight of the fruits grown from these varieties it was found 

 that the seeds of the first ripe fruits produced at the first picking, 35f 

 pounds of ripe fruit, while the other plants gave only 28£ pounds, showing 

 a gain of 7£ pounds in favor of planting seeds of the first ripe fruits, or 25 

 per cent. 



Examining these figures it was found that the angular sorts, which natur- 

 ally ripen early, produced 26 9-16 pounds at the first picking from the first 

 ripe fruits, while only 6 11-16 pounds were produced by the late fruits, or 

 only one-fourth as many. With the apple shaped sorts the result was 

 reversed, as the yield was respectively 8 3-16 pounds and 21 7-16 pounds for 

 the seeds from the first and the late ripening fruits, or in other words the 

 first picking of tomatoes of angular varieties gave four times as many fruits 

 from plants grown from seeds of the first ripe fruits as from those selected 

 from the main crop, while with the apple shaped sorts only two-fifths as 

 many were obtained. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE VARIETIES GROWN IN" 1888. 



I. LYCOPERSICUM PIMP1NELLLFOLIUM. Dunal. 



Plants slender and spreading. Leaflets round ovate, generally obtuse, 

 entire, small. 

 1. Currant. Thorburn. (Rothe Johannesleerfruchten, Neuman.) 

 (Fig. 13, Plate IV.) Fruit two-celled, light red, round, and 

 about half an inch in diameter. Too small to be of any value 



