180 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



varieties on different soils and under different managements and the frequent- 

 mixing of stocks by careless parties, and the task of determining duplicates 

 appears to be almost hopeless. But the very difficulty of the task is all the 

 more reason -why it should be grasped. This whole matter of determining the 

 synonomy or the duplicates in cultivated plants, together with the reformation 

 of garden nomenclature, is exceedingly important. None are so well qualified 

 to undertake this work as many of our seedsmen and it seems strange that 

 they should be the very ones who make the work necessary. The time can 

 certainly not be far distant when the most popular seedsmen will be those 

 who exercise the most care in excluding "novelties" and unnecessary varieties. 



The most noticeable feature of the tomatoes is the great similarity of most 

 of the kinds. Upon close examination, one observes that all the larger vari- 

 eties are exceedingly variable, — it is difficult to select a type. I imagine that 

 this variation is clue to the unfixity of varieties rather than to mixing from 

 cross-fertilization. In fact, Prof. 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 these facts before us we can appreciate the 

 impossibility of secuing new and permanent varieties from a few years of 

 selection. Seedsmen grow the same variety from different "stock" of seeds. 

 They select accordingly different models. As a consequence, these stocks some- 

 times soon appear under the names of new varieties, although they may have 

 gained no fixity, nor have been widely developed. 



With regard to varieties, Prof Bailey says: 



The earliest were Advance, Precursor, Boston, Tom Thumb, Conqueror and 

 The Cook's favorite. These all began to ripen about August 6. The early sea- 

 son was so very dry that none of the varieties produced fruit so early as they 

 should have done. The seeds were all sown in a forcing house March 18, and 

 transplanted, ten of a kind, to the open ground June 7 and 8. It is pos- 

 sible, however, that small difference in earliness are not to be relied upon in 

 estimating various characters. Careful experiments upon this point, running 

 through three or four ye-rs, conducted at the N. Y. Experiment Station, show 

 great variations in the comparative earliness of varieties. We have made 

 records of the first flowering and fruiting for future comparison. Although 

 the list of varieties, as reduced, contains some forty sorts, all the desirable 

 kinds for general cultivation are not more than six. From our experience, I 

 should select the following, six: Boston Market, Conqueror, Red Valencia 

 Cluster or Queen, Trophy, Livingston's Beauty, Paragon. If the rot should 

 continue to attack Livingston's Beauty and Paragon to the same extent as this 

 year, they will need to be discarded. The Trophy is apt to grow too irregular. 



In order to determine if all seedsmen send out the same tomato under the 

 same name, we grew Paragons from nineteen sources. Although all these 

 plants bore fruits which had most of the essential features of the Paragon, it- 

 is, nevertheless, an easy task to select from the patch whole plants which might 

 be taken to represent several different varieties. This fact simply proves- 

 again the unfixity of varieties, and the necessity of exercising caution in send- 

 ing out new ones. 



SUGGESTIVE LESSONS FKOM THE FAIK. 



AVith the experiences of the exhibition freshly before him the Secretary can- 

 not refrain from making a few suggestive notes in closing the account of this- 

 annual fair. 



