ANNUAL REPORT, 1929 375 



the main problems being investigated. Although there were variations 

 between the plots at the end of the 1929 season, there was no correlation 

 between the variations and the treatment of the plots. There was no con- 

 sistency between duplicate and triplicate plots. The extremely dry sea- 

 son made it possible to locate the favorable spots in the field which were 

 probably due to moisture. 



Cold Resistance in Sweet Corn in Its Relation to Quality, Siz)e, and 

 Earliness. (V. A. Tiedjens). Breeding a cold resistant early yellow 

 .sweet corn was continued. A large number of ears were selected from a 

 selfed lot of first generation seed. Considerable earliness has been in- 

 corporated in the Whipple Yellow strain used in the cross. Many of the 

 Fi selections were mature from two to ten days before the Whipple Yel- 

 low parent, and were fully as large. 



Greenhouse Lettuce. (V. A. Tiedjens). Three pounds of the Bel-May 

 greenhouse lettuce seed grown in 1929 were parceled out to growers in 

 small quantities. Preliminary reports from the growers show this lettuce 

 to be superior to Belmont and May King for greenhouse forcing. 



Improvemenet of Vegetable Varieties Through Root and Seed Selection. 

 (V. A. Tiedjens). Selection of fotindation stock for the Field Station 

 selection of the Wyman beet and Hutchinson carrot was continued. The 

 demand for the Hutchinson carrot seed this year exceeded the supply 

 by 400 pounds. 



Thirty-one lots of Dwarf Horticultural beans from as many seedsmen, 

 and fifteen lots of French Horticultural beans were compared, preliminary 

 to establishing uniformity for these two varieties. Much mixture was 

 found in most of the samples. Ten of the lots which showed some pro- 

 mise were saved for further study. There was considerable difference in 

 earliness and susceptibility to drought between the two varieties. 



Five samples of Blue Hubbard squash were secured for self-pollinating 

 to establish a uniform variety of Blue Hubbard. A strain of Green Hub- 

 bard from the Vermont Experiment Station was grown and found to be 

 very uniform for type characteristics. The season was not conducive to 

 their development, however, so that the squash were under size. This 

 was also true of the Blue Hubbard varieties. 



The Genetics of Greenhouse Cucumbers. (V. A. Tiedjens). The work on 

 this project has progressed along lines reported previously. Some crosses 

 having commercial possibilities are being compared. 



A new selection producing no pistillate flowers during the summer 

 months and only an occasional pistillate flower during the winter months has 

 been isolated and is being studied in crosses to determine how prevalent 

 the sterility may become in commercial houses. The factor for this 

 character probably had its origin in the English variety and may account 

 for low yielding plants in commercial houses, as most of the commercial 

 varieties carry some English "blood". 



Bitter Cucvmihers. Preliminary studies have been made on the relation 

 of fertilizer treatment to bitter cucumbers. Nitrate of soda, urea, calurea, 

 and calcium nitrate were compared with and without manure. The plants 

 were grown in half barrels, and the chemicals were applied as top-dressing 

 every two weeks. The first cucumibers were picked April 20, and the 

 first bitter cucumbers occurred after May 10. The tubs receiving no 



