ANNUAL REPORT, 1940 85 



characters. The oldest progenies are now in the Fs generation and some 

 of these appear to offer promise of worthwhile strains. 



Sweet Corn Breeding. (W. H. Lachman.) Approximately 200 single 

 plant lines have been selected from the 1600 original lines. The project 

 was started four years ago so that many of the present lines are quite 

 uniform in earliness, productivity, disease resistance, and ciuality. Many 

 of the inbreds have exceptional vigor in relation to their earliness. 



Approximately fifty of the best lines were crossed with an extremely 

 early and productive inbred to study their general usefulness as parental 

 material. Seed has been obtained from these crosses and will be tested 

 in experimental plots during the coming year. 



Hybrid Sweet Corn. (W. H. Lachman.) Seventy-one strains and 

 varieties of yellow hybrid sweet corn were planted for trial during the 

 past season. As in previous years many of these performed very well 

 but were a little too late in maturing to qualify as excellent market 

 garden varieties for Massachusetts. Of the varieties which were in the 

 trials four are especially noteworthy: Spancross (C4xC13) had only 

 a medium-sized ear but was an extra earh' sort of good quality; Marcross 

 (C6xC13) was a few days later than Spancross, produced a large ear, 

 and was very uniform in plant and ear characters; Carmelcross (P39x C13) 

 matured in the early midseason group of varieties, had a large ear, and 

 was of excellent quality; Golden Cross Bantam was especially outstand- 

 ing in the midseason class, had a large ear, was highly productive, and 

 was of excellent quality. loana, which was a few days later than Golden 

 Cross Bantam, produced well-formed ears of fair ciuality, filled to the tip. 



Sources of Organic Matter for Greenhouse Tomatoes. (W. H. Lach- 

 man and G. B. Snyder.) Applications of straw, peat moss, cow manure, 

 and horse manure have been made and incorporated in duplicate test plots 

 in the greenhouse in an effort to obtain larger yields of greenhouse to- 

 matoes as well as to ascertain the best source of organic matter. From 

 preliminary observations it appears that peat moss may prove to be a 

 valuable substitute for manure if sufficient commercial fertilizer is applied 

 to compensate for the nutrients which are supplied in the manure. It is 

 planned to repeat the tests several times before a summarized report is 

 made. 



The Effects of Mulching Tomatoes and Peppers. (W. H. Lachman 

 and G. B. Snyder.) Various mulching materials were compared with 

 clean cultivation for tomatoes and peppers. Straw, banana fiber, and 

 horse manure were the materials used. Based on one season's results it 

 appears that these mulching materials had little or no effect on the yield, 

 percentage of cracking, or quality of fruit. Banana fiber was apparently 

 .juite effective in reducing the acidity of the soil, since these plots averaged 

 approximately pH 7.2 while the pH of the soil from the other plots was 

 about 5.7. 



Cultural Practice Prior to Field Setting as Influencing Yield and Qual- 

 ity of Peppers. (W. H. Lachman.) Several methods of handling plants 

 prior to field setting have been used to observe their effect on earliness, 

 yield, and quality of the fruits produced. The Waltham Beauty strain of 

 pepper has been used throughout the test. 



