SEED INSPECTION 85 



TYPE AND VARIETY STUDIES OF VEGETABLES 



Conducted in Conjunction with the Department of Olericulture, 

 Grant B. Snyder, Professor 



In order to determine the trueness to type or variety of vegetable seeds which 

 are offered for sale by the seedsmen in this State, samples of seed of those kinds 

 of vegetables which are grown in the greatest quantity in Massachusetts are 

 taken by State Inspectors and sent to the Massachusetts Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station at Amherst, where the Department of Olericulture sows seed of the 

 various lots in field test plots in order to compare plant characteristics with the 

 labeled variety name and other descriptive information. 



During the 1940 season 253 lots were planted in trial grounds, including beans, 

 beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, 

 onions, parsley, parsnips, peppers, radish, rutabagas, spinach, squash, tomato 

 and turnip. 



The soil of the trial plots was of a sandy loam type. It was fertilized properly 

 and thoroughly prepared prior to seedage or plant setting. Growth and develop- 

 ment was satisfactory, although the growing season was cold and wet during 

 June and the first two weeks of July, with late July and part of August hot 

 and dry. 



The results reported below should be interpreted with certain reservations 

 because of the fact that not all strains and varieties are affected alike by various 

 climatic and soil conditions. 



Yield records were not taken because of the necessity of using small plots and 

 also because replication of the plantings was impossible with the large number of 

 strains and varieties that were compared. 



Conformity to type has been the criterion of general excellence in these studies. 

 Type in plants deals with numerous characteristics such as the shape of the 

 marketable portion of the plant; relative smoothness, tallness, or dwarf ness; 

 different colors of flowers, fruits, or seeds; disease resistance or susceptibility; 

 and many other well-defined differ nces. Individual plants have been called 

 off-type where they did not conform reasonably closely to the average for the 

 particular strain or variety under consideration. 



Only those lots of seed which were found to be slightly or definitely off type are 

 included in the following table. The percentages listed mean actual numbers 

 of plants that were within the type range and developed, for the variety in ques- 

 tion, a reasonably satisfactory plant. The source of the seed and the laboratory 

 germination records are to be found in the table on pages 52-84 where the lots of 

 seed used in the field tests are identified by the letter "F" added to the laboratory 

 number. Those seeds tested in the field and not included in the following table 

 were found 100% true to type. 



