390 NEAV JERSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



of that class are very different from corn, which crosses so readily 

 that difi&culty lies in keeping a variety pure when grown anywhere 

 near another variety. 



In another part of the Experiment Area, where the suspected 

 crosses between the two above-named varieties of beans of last year 

 were grown this season, there was considerable of the bean-pod spot 

 (Colletotrichum lagenariuvi Pass.) upon the "Saddleback Wax." 

 This is interesting as showing that this disease may appear upon a 

 piece of land after it has been almost entirely absent for some years. 



There was no record made of the yield of the two varieties, the 

 comparative productiveness having been fully determined in previous 

 years. The crop was such, however, as to confirm the opinion ex- 

 pressed before, that, under good culture and a fair degree of manur- 

 ing, bush beans may be grown upon the same soil for at least eight 

 years, with two crops in each season. 



EXPERIMENTS IN CROSSING LIMA BEANS. 



Last year twenty plants were secured as crosses between the ' ' Hen- 

 derson" and "Burpee" types of dwarf limas. The seeds upon all 

 this score of plants were planted this year and the results are here 

 recorded. 



In a general way, it may be said that the vigor of the plants was 

 satisfactory. There were many individual differences from the time 

 the seedlings unfolded their first true leaves, and the plot showed 

 those evidences of a mingled blood that plant-breeders find so diffi- 

 cult to set down in words. Some rows, that is, plants from one 

 parent, were more uniform than others, favoring the "Henderson" 

 or the " Burpee " as it might be. As they increased in age all of the 

 hundreds remained true to the dwarf type excepting seven plants, and 

 those were given poles and climbed, with one exception, with the 

 vigor characteristic of genuine pole beans. It remains to be deter- 

 mined what the progeny may desire to do. In passing, it maj^ be 

 said that the future of these climbers is full of interest, for they 

 represent a combination of qualities that may be of commercial im- 

 portance. These plants are treated separately elsewhere. 



In fruitage there is a remarkable constancy for all the twenty sets 

 of plants adhere when quite closely to a type of pod and seed that 

 make it easy to distinguish them from either of the crosses. It is 

 not necessary to repeat in full the statement made in the report of 

 last year, where a full page plate was employed to exhibit the cross 



