1040 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



the pink strain of JNIalakosby, witli tlie result tbat 89 of the ears were straw 

 and 41 pink color, from which it appears that the two colors are not easily 

 separated. 



A field test was made with the view of determining the power flinty sweet 

 corn has of reproducing its kind, a block of the Malamo variety having flinty 

 grains and a similar block with grains of the ordinary type being planted. A 

 few ears from the former plat showed the flintiness, and the ears taken from 

 the latter plat showed the flinty or starchy kernels in great number. It ai)pears 

 from this test that flinty grains tend to reproduce their kind, thereby suggest- 

 ing the desirability of rejecting sweet-corn ears tliat show starchy grains. 



In the tomato work an effort has been made to i)roduce a fruit of marketable 

 size having a long axis and an interior made np largely of flesh with many 

 small seed cavities. With this idea in view large apple-shaped fruits have been 

 bred with the plum and pear types. Some promising crosses have been secured 

 and seeds are to be offered for trial. A preliminary classification for tomatoes, 

 based on Mendelian jirinciples, is offered and discussed. 



The blend plants of several crosses of eggplants have shown remarkable uni- 

 formity and reflect characters of both parents in the first generation. Long 

 White upon New York Improved gave fruit satisfactory in size and color and 

 is offered for distribution under the name of Ivory. With the hybrids between 

 the American and Chinese species, the size of the hybrid fruit has been much 

 enlarged by increasing the blood of the former parent. Seeds from many of 

 the hybrid eggplants were grown and tabular statements are given showing the 

 various qualities of the offspring, together with notes upon the calyx character 

 of eggplants. 



The work with IJma beans was chiefly a continuation of the crosses secured 

 between the Jackson Wonder and the several white-seeded sf)rts. The willow- 

 leaf types are being studied as having possibly more resistance to mildew than 

 the ordinary sort. A new generation of the hybrids l)etween snap beans and the 

 " scarlet runner " show many types difl'ering in form of vine, leaf, flower, pod, 

 and seed. Several new kinds of squashes were grown and used extensively in 

 breeding. Some promising types of garden peas were also secured. From the 

 work with salsify, which has been conducted for several years, it was found 

 that the union of two species of very uniform but widely different colors of 

 bloom resulted in tlie production of a great many shades in the flowers of the 

 hybrids, any of which appear to be easily fixed by close-pollinating in the plant 

 having the desired shade. The classification of the commercial varieties of 

 okra has not been sufliciently determined as yet to take up accurate breeding 

 work . 



Extracts of reports from testers of the Pak-Choi and Pe-Tsai, the two Chinese 

 vegetables previously described (E. S. R., 18, p. 8.36), are given. The plants 

 are generally I'eported as quick-growing and tending to run to seed. This is 

 not the case when the seed is sown in midsummer. Pak-Choi is very frost 

 resistant and may be valuable as a late autumn crop. It does not seem to be 

 attacked by the ordinary enemies of Brussels sprouts and its cabbage-like allies. 



Some tests were made in thinning beans. Half of the pods were removed 

 from several plants each of the Kelsey and the station Bush I^ima beans. The 

 results show an increase of over one-third in the weight of seed for the thinned 

 plants, as well as a larger percentage of mature seeds. This operation may 

 prove of value in seed production. Thinning of the "hyacinth bean" (Doli- 

 chos lahlah) within the single flower clusters showed no change from the 

 normal. 



lieciprocal grafts were made of tomato with "garden huckleberry" (S. 

 ni(jruin), eggplant, and other tomatoes. In general the results show no varia- 



