discarded. Following increase of the seed of the dwarf lines having non- 

 fading pods, cooking tests were started. Some lines had peas that were 

 unpalatable, being of a puckery nature. A chemical test revealed that the 

 unpalatable peas had a high content of tannin, in itself not so much harm- 

 ful as distasteful. So purple-pod peas were grown in the greenhouse under 

 lights to supplement the short photoperiod during the winter, and the peas 

 in a single pod taken, one pod from each plant, were cooked. Some plants 

 were found that had peas of sweet flavor. Seed of these has been increased 

 for field plantings. Also backcrosses of the dwarf purple-pod lines have 

 been made to high quality, dwarf, green-pod varieties, to aid in the selec- 

 tion for additional table quality if this is found necessary after proving 

 of the present promising lines. Seemingly, a dwarf purple-pod pea of good 

 quality should become popular with home gardeners because of the con- 

 venience of harvest associated with a pod color that contrasts with the 

 green of the plants. 



Perm a green Pepper 



Large green peppers of the California Wonder type are a popular market 

 item. Sometimes green peppers held in the retail stores for several days 

 begin to turn red. a natural result of ripening. This is undesirable as most 

 consumers seem to prefer either fully green or fully red-ripe peppers. A 

 most interesting pepper was received from Dr. Paul Smith, Davis, Cali- 

 fornia. This pepper had a deep dark-green color while immature and also 

 retained this green color when fully ripe. It was, however, late in maturity 

 and the fruit was long and slender and had thin walls. In itself, this 

 permanent green pepper had no commercial value. A cross was made be- 

 tween it and the early Merrimack Wonder pepper which is adapted to 

 northern states. The fruits in the first generation were all red color when 

 fully ripe. Since the permanent green color is a recessive character gov- 

 erned by two factors, only one in sixteen plants could be expected to have 

 the desired dark-green, ripe fruits from among those plants grown for 

 the second generation. Segregation for fruit color in the second generation 

 as noted by Paul Smith is for 9 red, 3 brown. 3 yellow, 1 green. 



From among the number of F^ plants that we were able to grow both 

 in the greenhouse and the open field, it was not possible to select a green. 

 ripe pepper that had all desirable horticultural characteristics directly from 

 this generation. By noting the relative degree of green pigment in the ovary 

 at full bloom or a few days later and by selection of those plants having 

 real dark-green ovaries, it has been possible to eliminate larger numbers 

 of plants and yet save those few plants that would mature green-ripe 

 peppers. The early maturing plants were chosen at full bloom by selecting 

 the plants to open their flowers. Such selected plants were transplanted to 

 the open field. A few days before frost, the most promising permanent green 

 plants were dug, pruned back somewhat, all fruits removed, and then potted 

 for removal to the greenhouse. 



Growing of a crop of fruits within a screened greenhouse was necessary 

 to avoid chance crosses from insect pollinations in the field. This procedure 

 also enabled the making of backcrosses during the winter. One backcross 

 was made to Merrimack Wonder and from those plants having permanent 

 green ripe fruits in the ensuing segregating generation, several promising 



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