EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 491 



might be expected, as the "Magnus" and "Ponderosa" agree in 

 this character. 



" Seedless " Tomatoes. 



Several plants of the old "No. 177" stock have been grown 

 the present season. The "Giant," as it is called, and the begin- 

 ning of the "Seedless" stock, came originally from a cross of 

 "Golden Sunrise" upon "Dwarf Champion" in 1899. It was 

 so large that it stood alx)ve all surrounding plants, and made a 

 spread of about ten feet. It was remarkable in having but few 

 {2y) fruits, all about an inch in diameter, and with ieeds rang- 

 ing from none to six for each tomato. Plants in successive 

 generations have been grown from these seeds each year since 

 1899. The following is taken from the report for last year : 



"Seeds of third-generation fruits of this number were sown 

 in the greenhouse the past winter, and some of the seedlings 

 were remarkable, owing to their having three, and, in one 

 instance, four cotyledons. From these seedlings a few small 

 and almost seedless fruits were obtained, and from these came, 

 for a late setting, the plants in rows 5 to 10, in plot III Several 

 of these have produced more and larger fruits than their parent 

 plants, and bore a very limited number of seeds. Specimens of 

 these fruits are shown in Plate VI. [1903]. The number of 

 seeds in each fruit ranged from five to fifty, while those of ordi- 

 nary tomatoes is among the hundreds." 



The plants the present season are in many ways a duplicate 

 of the last. The fruits are two inches in diameter, and nearly 

 seedless, as tomatoes go, sufficiently so for all practical purposes 

 of propagation. 



It is interesting to note that all of the many attempts to cross 

 the "Giant" upon other varieties failed, and in several instances 

 when pollen of "Potato-Leaf" (104) and "Yellow Prince" (148) 

 was used upon its flowers there resulted marketable sized fruits, 

 but without any seeds — cases of seedlessness far l^eyond the 

 breeder's desire. 



Further Experiments "With Tomatoes. 



During the present season, a large portion of the experiment 

 area has been in tomatoes. Seeds were obtained from a long 

 list of dealers and others, representing a wide range of country, 

 in order that a great variety of conditions of seed production 

 might be included in the experiment. A study of these varieties 



