Report of the Botanist. 



Byron D. Halsted, Sc.D. 

 Earle J. Owen, M.S., Nahum D. Shore, M.S., Assistants. 



During the year ending November 30th, 1908, the Botanical 

 Department has been engaged chiefly in the study of certain truck 

 crops as sweet corn, tomatoes, eggplants, beans, squashes, peas, 

 peppers and okra. 



A different point of view has been assumed since the Depart- 

 ment has been placed upon the Adams Fund. Instead of making 

 the production of new and improved sorts of vegetable fruits the 

 end, novelties become a by-product in the search for the rules 

 that underlie the amelioration of plants. If, for example, while 

 working out the meaning of flintiness in sweet corn and a way 

 of avoiding it, new improved breeds are produced the people of 

 the State may expect to profit by the specific as well as general 

 result. 



The work with sweet corn has been in the line of a better 

 understanding of the crop through the study of crosses of diverse 

 kinds. In the search for the origin of flintiness, that appears 

 distressingly frequently among the various commercial varieties, 

 crosses were first made between the "Adams," an early, starchy 

 kind, and the long-time standard, mid-early sort, "Crosby." This 

 has been followed by the breeding of western field varieties upon 

 various standard sweet sorts. For the same purpose and other 

 additional study, crosses are being extended to flint and pop 

 varieties. The service of the branch, or so-called "sucker" in 

 the economy of the plant is being considered, as likewise the 

 value of water imbibition of the mature grains as a test of vitality 

 and quality. 



With tomatoes, the work has been continued along several 

 lines, one of which is the production of a marketable-sized fruit 

 with a long axis and a coreless, fleshy interior with few seeds. 

 The result of the present year shows much progress and soon it 

 may be possible to offer seeds of the desired kind. It is, how- 

 ever, more to the purpose of the work to find out the methods by 



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