84 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 355 



was noted — the way the hj'brid material came through the adverse weather 

 and produced a good crop. 



Hutchinson Carrol. The Station's supply of stock seed was increased during the 

 past season. Just before a week of rain set in, the carrot seed crop had the 

 heaviest set of bloom ever seen on carrots in the East. Rain prevented pollination 

 of many flowers and the seed crop was only normal. 



The work with hybrid carrot material was continued. Considerable hybrid 

 vigor was noted. It will be several years, however, before this hybrid material 

 can be purified and its value determined. 



Wyman Crosby Beet. The work of improving the color of this beet was con- 

 tinued and a good crop of seed was produced from last year's selections. More 

 selections were made this season. Slow but steady improvement has been noted 

 in the color of this beet during the last two years. 



Waltham Beauty Pepper. Besides maintaining stock seed of this pepper, over 

 fifty hybrid lines, in which the Waltham Beauty is one of the parents, were 

 grown. Several of the hybrids look very promising and it is hoped that an easier 

 picking pepper of the Waltham Beauty type may be ofTered before long. 



Waltham Scarlet Shell Bean. Wider use of this shell bean by growers has been 

 delayed because of a lack of available seed for large plantings. Most growers are 

 reluctant to grow their own seed, and unless facilities for making this bulky crop 

 available to growers on a large scale can be found the project will be dropped. 



DEPARTMENT OF POMOLOGY 

 R. A. Van Meter in Charge 



The outstanding event of 1938 was the severe windstorm of September 21. 

 Immediately preceded by a record-breaking rainfall of 11.28 inches in three 

 days, which saturated the soil, an 80-mile wind caused much destruction to both 

 trees and crop in the experiment station orchards. More than half the crop 

 was still on the trees and most of it was blown off. Tree damage was mostly 

 through partial uprooting of the trees varying from a small departure from per- 

 pendicular to complete prostration. There was some breakage of large branches, 

 especially with Northern Spy. The fall of neighboring fojest trees crushed some 

 apple trees. Out of 770 trees mostly of bearing age, 134 were partially or com- 

 pletely blown over and 34 badly broken. Thus about 22 percent of our experi- 

 mental trees were more or less severely injured by the storm. Some of the in- 

 jured trees were beyond recovery but most of them were brought back to normal 

 position and held by means of two or three guy wires anchored to "dead men" 

 buried about two feet in the ground. How well they will recover from the breakage 

 and dislocation of the root system remains to be seen. A previous severe wind- 

 storm on May 15 blew down many shade trees but caused little damage to our 

 orchards. 



The season was one of ample and even excessive rainfall. The set of apples 

 was rather poor but the fruit sized up well. Peach buds survived the winter cold 

 well and the crop was good except on trees badly injured by the "X disease". 

 Other fruits produced well but there was some damage to small fruits from heavy 

 rains during the ripening season. 



The Influence of Various Clonal Rootstocks on Apple Varieties. (J. K. Shaw 

 and L. Southwick.) The stool bed of Mailing clonal stocks produced a fair growth 

 of rooted stocks which will be cut next spring. Fall cutting seems to be injurious 

 to the bed. The rooted stocks in the nursery were budded quite successfully, 



