research program with tomatoes and 

 asparagus. He has tested various 

 breeding systems, selecting for fruit 

 size, earliness, and yield in tomatoes. 

 He originated 'Sunset', a highly pro- 

 ductive, early bush variety of tomato 

 with good size and color. 'Sunset' is an 

 excellent tomato for New England, and 

 though it has some shortcomings, re- 

 search is continuing in an effort to 

 breed improved varieties. Routley and 

 Peirce have evaluated factors which 

 influence resistance to late blight, a 

 very destructive disease of tomatoes, 

 and found a positive association be- 

 tween blight resistance and total car- 

 bohydrate content of the leaf. 



In asparagus research, Peirce de- 

 termined the inheritance of a green 

 stemmed nutrient mutant and intro- 

 duced a new cultivar 'Emerald' having 

 bright green spears and excellent yield 

 and winter survival. Depressed pro- 

 duction and the inability to replant 

 asparagus in old fields is believed to 

 be a consequence of infection by two 

 soil-borne organisms. He is investigat- 

 ing the problem using tissue culture 

 techniques. Peirce was named interim 

 Dean of the College and Director of the 

 Station in 1978. In 1987 he authored a 

 book entitled, "Vegetables: Character- 

 istics, Production and Marketing." 



Lilacs in the Granite State nor- 

 mally bloom in early May. O. M. Rogers, 

 breeder of ornamentals, is selecting 

 lilacs with the objective of extending 

 the flowering season from May into 

 late June. The 'Jesse R. Hepler' variety 

 oflilac, released by the Station in 1976 

 features slow growth, rounded shape, 

 mildew resistance, and it blooms in 

 late June with light lavender flowers. 

 Another late blooming lilac developed 

 by Rogers by crossing and selection 

 over a period of 1 1 years, 'Agnes Smith' 

 has also been released by the Experi- 



ment Station. It is vigorous, hardy, 

 mildew-resistant and has white flow- 

 ers. 



J. B. Loy, a physiological geneti- 

 cist-plant breeder, works primarily 

 with watermelons, muskmelons, 

 pumpkins and squash. He has evalu- 

 ated the effects of growth regulators, 

 light quality, and photoperiod on seed 

 germination, fruit set and other traits, 

 and their control of sex expression in 

 watermelons and muskmelons. To 

 avoid the tedious task of hand pollina- 

 tion in the production of hybrid seed 

 he developed a strain of muskmelon 

 that produces virtually all female 

 flowers and which, when planted with 

 another strain that produces all male 

 flowers, allows bees to make the cross. 

 The female strain is perpetuated by 

 treating a few plants with chemicals 

 causing them to produce some male 

 flowers, thus inducing self fertiliza- 

 tion. Hybrids tested have matured early 

 and yielded quality fruit. But since the 

 harsh New Hampshire spring retards 

 plant growth, O. S. Wells (Cooperative 

 Extension Vegetable Specialist) and 

 Loy have experimented with plastic 

 row covers to protect transplanted 

 plants and make growing muskmel- 

 ons more successful and allow earlier 

 planting of other vegetable crops. 



Loy has bred an open-pollinated 

 strain of squash called ' Autiunn Pride' 

 released by the Experiment Station in 

 1981. Its unique features are bush- 

 type growth and large Hubbard-type 

 fruit. 



Legumes are a group of plants 

 which, because of a symbiotic rela- 

 tionship with a special group of bacte- 

 ria called rhizobia, are capable of con- 

 verting atmospheric nitrogen to the 

 ammonium form useful to the host 

 plant. Unfortunately, since major food 



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