NOTES ON THE BREEDING OF BEANS AND PEAS 



By W. T. Macoun, Horticulturist, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada 



The following notes of an experiment to determine whether the time 

 of maturing of beans could be lessened by selection may be at least sug- 

 gestive. The experiment proves that even in the first year there was a 

 marked difference. Reference is also made in these notes to a pea cross 

 and the selection which followed where the results proved how readily once 

 a cross had been made, the size of the pea could be altered by selection. 



BEANS 



In the year 1899 the earliest ripe pods from the earliest ripe plant of 

 the variety of bean known as Challenge Black Wax were selected. The 

 beans from this pod, six in number, were planted in 1900. There was a 

 difference of three days between the time of ripening of the earliest and 

 latest plant of these six. The earliest pod was taken from the earliest 

 plant, and the beans from this, five in number, were planted in 1901. There 

 was two days' difference between the earliest and latest plants. All the 

 pods from the earliest plant were saved and twenty beans sown in 1902. 

 This year there was six days' difference between the earliest and latest 

 plant. Only seven plants out of the twenty had beans ready for table use 

 at the earliest date; one, two days after; nine, three days after, and three, 

 six days after. 



In 1901 after selecting the earliest ripe pod from the earliest of the five 

 plants growing, the rest of the beans were saved and sown in 1902, when 

 the beans were three days earlier than seed freshly imported from Phila- 

 delphia. In 1902 seed from these was saved and sown alongside freshly 

 imported seed from Philadelphia. The crop from our seed, though the 

 beans had gone one year without selection, was seven days earlier. On 

 different soil there was a difference of six days. How much of this 

 difference is due to climate and how much to selection has not yet been 

 determined, but that much of it is due to selection is indicated by the fact 

 that among the selected plants themselves there was a difference of six 

 days between the earliest and latest. 



PEAS 



Many crosses have been made at the Dominion Experimental Farms 

 between different varieties of peas. In the year 1892 t. cross was made by 

 Dr. A. P. Saunders with Black Eyed Marrowfat as the female and Mummy 

 as the male parent, the former being a large, black-eyed pea and the latter 

 a medium sized, white one. The peas from the crop of that year had 

 black eyes and resembled the Marrowfat very much. These were sown in 



