On the otlier hand, seeds treated with thermahieutrons produced plants 

 that seemed rather uniform within the treatments at the time they were 

 planted in the field. There were noticeable differences in vigor between the 

 different treatments. Plants from seeds having the lowest rate of exposure 

 (15 hours) differed little from untreated plants. Those plants from seeds 

 treated for 20 hours were reduced somewhat in their vigor, while those 

 from seeds exposed to 25 hours of the thermalneutrons were much smaller 

 than the untreated plants. As the growing season progressed, many sterile 

 plants or those having a branch of the plant unfruitful were noted. Whether 

 there might have been any effect on disease resistance could not be learned 

 in this one growing season. This experiment is rather highly speculative, 

 but might eventually make available some useful character for continued 

 plant ])reeding with the tomato. 



Johnny Jumpup Tomato 



Extreme earliness is always import- 

 ant in tomatoes for the north. A se- 

 lection made at Colebrook, New 

 Hampshire*, is outstanding in this 

 respect. Bison, Victor, and Farthest 

 North are involved in its ancestry. 

 This selection has been distributed 

 for trial as BV #5. This tomato 

 makes a compact plant, two feet or 

 less in diameter that ripens its entire 

 crop from seed in 100 days. The ob- 

 late red fruits have many locules and 

 run six to the pound. While not a 

 commercial tomato, it is an interest- 

 ing home garden variety, useful for 

 juice and salads. Johnny Jumpup to- 

 mato ripens its crops so early that 

 seed can be sown direct in the field 

 in southern New Hampshire and still 

 ripen its full crop. It should be valu- 

 able also to plant breeders who need extreme earliness, a many loculed 

 fruit, and a much-branched determinate plant in a parent. 



Johnny Jumpup is an early tomato, 

 has fruits which are flat, juicy, small. 



Market Midget Watermelon 



The New Hampshire Midget watermelon, previously introduced, has met 

 with such wide acceptance the world around, that it would seem desirable 

 to correct one of its defects, the brittleness of the rind. When the fruits are 

 piled in the store or handled roughly, they are apt to break. New Hampshire 

 Midget, while high in quality, has a short market life. For this reason a 

 cross was made between New Hampshire Midget and Winter Queen, a 

 variety with tough rind and which can be stored for several weeks. From 



* Henry Clapp was in charge of the northern New Hampshire plots at the time. 



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