EXPERIMENT ST/ATION REPORT. 271 



two years ago were placed in the immediate charge of Mr, Shore. 

 Unfortunately, during midsununer of the present season he was 

 taken suddenly and seriously ill, and, therefore, the work of breed- 

 ing, &c., has heen largely omitted and as a consequence the report 

 for these important crops will be fragmentary and brief for this 

 year. A very noticeable result of fertilization within the plant 

 among the squashes was a feebleness of the vine followed by a fail- 

 ure of the crop. 



A large part of the home grounds wa& devoted to the study of 

 the tomato. Having a fairly full set of the parents and some thou- 

 sands of plants, representing hundreds of crosses, the opportunity 

 has been ample for a consideration of the una that make up the 

 tomato plant, and tlieir reactions upon one another when subjected 

 to the various combinations possible in crossing and recrossing the 

 varieties. It is in mind to develop a classification of the culti- 

 vated sorts of the tomato, founded upon the stable una and show 

 the range of variation that may be possible under each sort. 



While seeking for rules of breeding that may be of general ap^- 

 plioation the long fruit of commercial size is still kept in view, 

 and, as a matter of fact, a large number of the plants bore fruit 

 of much promise in this regard. It will be of interest to show that 

 the ^'Goose-egg" fruit of marketable size has been obtained along 

 more than one line. While the breeding of the slender "plum" 

 or "pear" type, with a large apple-shape is quite fundamental, 

 in this work it has been found that when several widely different 

 types are blended by crossing and recrossing some striking forms 

 come to the light that are, of course, propagated by cuttings, and 

 ]wssibly by breeding these within the plant, desirable results may 

 be reached without gTcat lossi of vigor. 



Some work has been done uix)n the internal structure of the 

 tomato (pep]:ier and eggplant also). While the number of seed 

 cavities (locules) does not express the full meaning of the interior 

 of a to'mato ; by counting of them in equatorial sectional view and 

 in large numbers, a knowledge of the constancy or variability of 

 this characteristic is obtained that may help in securing the ideal 

 interior. It has been shown that wdth some kinds the number is 

 fairly constant, particularly when it is two or three, as in the 

 smaller ("currant," "cherry," "plum" and "pear") sorts; in the 

 large, flat and irregular kinds ("Ponderosa") the locules are nu- 

 merous, -^-ery variable and a, single section does not reveal them all. 



