DiriSIOX OF HORTICULTURE 687 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



In the above table the following numbers have been selected as plants most desir- 

 able for future breeding work, namely, No. 13, No. 9, No. 24, No. 20, No. 15, and No. 

 25. It will be seen that there are several plants in the above table that give a better 

 yield than plant No. 15, but it was chosen on account of the large proportion of fruit 

 matured in the earliest part of the season, namely, 7 pounds 7 ounces of marketable 

 fruit was picked before August 24. Similar work was carried on with the other strains 

 and plants have been selected from these. By this means it is hoped ultimately to 

 secure a very early yielding strain of tomato. 



A quantity of seed amounting to about 15 pounds has been secured from our owq 

 plants this season. This seed has been distributed to experimenters throughout the 

 country for trial, and a large proportion of the reports, so far received, speak very 

 favourably of this new strain. 



SWEET CORN. 



During the past season seed of corn crosses made dairing the summers of 1914 

 and 1913 were tested and isolation and selection employed in an endeavour to 

 secure particular types of an early bearing sweet corn of good quality. The earliest 

 bearing sweet corn now grown at the Central Farm has proved to be Early Mal- 

 colm, an extraction from Early Malakoff, a sweet corn of Riissian origin. A num- 

 ber of crosses were made between Early Malcolm- and White Early Adams (a Dent 

 corn), and White Squaw (an aboriginal, flint corn, dwarf in habit, but extremely 

 vigorous and early bearing). From these crosses a number of new types have been 

 obtained and it is hoped that some of considerable commercial value may be iso- 

 lated and established from this selection of hybrids. 



The following table gives the comparative characteristics of these hybrids; 

 with regard to this table a few explanatory notes will be of assistance to those 

 interested in corn breeding and corn selection. 



The term '' nubbin " refers to unmarketable ears of five inches in length and 

 under. 



The " Ear Eow Katio " denotes the number of ears of eight rows of kernels, 

 ten rows, twelve rows, fourteen rows, or sixteen rows of kernels, harvested in a given 

 row of 100 feet in length of each strain. 



The column under the heading of "Ear Length" gives three numbers to each 

 strain, the first denoting the number of ears over seven inches in length from kernel 

 to kernel, the second seven to six, the third six to five. 



Ottawa. 



