ANNUAL REPORT, 1936 75 



vegetables have been offered to the vegetable grower. Many of these newer 

 sorts were planted in the trial plots along with the more standard sorts and 

 comparatively evaluated for performance, quality, and adaptability to Massa- 

 chusetts conditions. Some one thousand different lots covering more than 50 

 different kinds of vegetables were included in the trials. Detailed records were, 

 however, taken on only lettuce, sweet corn, and tomatoes. In lettuce, New 

 York No. 12 and No. 515 were outstanding in earliness, freedom from tip burn, 

 and percentage of crop marketable. In tomatoes, the Field Station Comet, 

 Bonny Best, and Marglobe gave the best results as trellis varieties. In general 

 the hybrid varieties of sweet corn were later in maturity, of better quality, 

 and produced a larger ear and plant than their respective standard varieties. 



Asparagus Investigations. (Robert E. Young, Waltham.) 



Varietal Improvement. The cutting records for the 278 individual asparagus 

 plants indicate that the plants that were high producers in the past continued 

 to be so classed this year. Seed collected last year from the high-yielding plants 

 produced a fine crop of seedlings for transplanting in the spring of 1937. 



Asparagus rust was present in the planting for the first time this year, thus 

 affording an opportunity to eliminate from consideration as parental material 

 all susceptible plants. 



The results for the last three years indicate that the high-producing plants 

 give visual indication of their potential production, thus enabling plant breeders 

 and growers to select the proper plants for seed production without the neces- 

 sity of keeping yield records. 



Data covering certain phases of this work are being prepared for publication. 



Depth of Planting and Height of Cutting. There has been no important change 

 during the past year in this long-time experiment. . The shallow-planted as- 

 paragus roots remain the highest producing plot in the depth-of-planting experi- 

 ment. Shallow planting has not reduced the percentage of fancy asparagus 

 produced. 



Cutting asparagus with 12 inches of green has not weakened the plants. 



When asparagus is cut with only 4 inches of green, there is a reduction in both 

 total yield and percentage of fancy asparagus. 



In this experiment to date cutting the asparagus with plenty of green on the 

 spears, as the market demands, has not lessened the yield as most growers 

 believed. 



Vegetable Breeding for Improvement of Quality. (Robert E. Young, 

 Waltham.) 



Waltham Scarlet Shell Bean. Samples of the new Waltham Scarlet Shell 

 Bean were again distributed to a large number of growers to obtain their re- 

 action, and for comparison with other strains of beans on various types of soil 

 and methods of culture. Replies from the growers indicate that this shell bean 

 has merit and a definite advantage over other strains. Many growers, having 

 used the samples of seed as stock seed, now have sufficient seed for all their 

 planting. Several lots of seed for sale during 1937 were grown by those mer- 

 chandising the new seed. The supply, however, is still far from sufficient. 



Waltham Beauty Pepper. The results obtained during 1936 with the Wal- 

 tham Beauty Pepper were a confirmation of those obtained in 1935. The trials 

 by growers indicate that in most places the Waltham Beauty is quite satis- 

 factory. Many growers reported that they received a higher price for this 

 pepper than they did for any other varieties largely grown. This is mainly due 

 to the desirable shape, making a pleasing market package. These peppers are 



