52 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 428 



Asparagus Investigations. (Robert E. Young, Waltham.) In a breeding pro- 

 ject which has as its objective the improvement of asparagus both as to yield and 

 uniformity, individual plant performance was recorded for 450 plants, representing 

 five selected lines and one commercial strain. As evidence that increases in yield 

 can be obtained by selection, the two highest producing strains in 1944, Nos. 1 

 and 4, each produced 1.3 pounds of asparagus per plant, compared with 0.76 

 pound per plant from Mary Washington grown from the best commercial seed. 

 These averages are based on plots containing 75 to 98 plants each. The five- 

 year average for these three plots in pounds of asparagus produced per plant is: 

 No. i, LIB; No. 4, L22; and Mary Washington, 0.62. 



There is a variation from year to year in the average number of spears the 

 plants produced and also in the weight. This appears to be of a biennial nature, 

 being up one year and down the next. Whether there is a correlation between 

 the variation in yield and the weather cannot be accurately determined until the 

 yield records for a greater number of years are available. 



There is considerable variation in the production of individual plants in all of 

 the strains. The plants were divided into four groups on the basis of the number 

 of spears produced in 1944: A, 1 to 10 spears; B, 11 to 20; C, 21 to 30; and D, 31 

 and up. Strain 1 had almost equal distribution of plants in each group; Strain 

 4 had 9 percent in A, 38 percent in D, and the rest divided equally between B 

 and C; while Mary Washington had 46 percent in the low-producing group A, 32 

 percent in B, 12 percent in C, and only 10 percent in the high-producing group D. 

 Selection of parent plants on the basis of yield has, in this second generation, 

 greatly reduced the number of plants which produced only a few stalks, and 

 approximately doubled the yield. 



For the second consecutive year, there was no rust. There was very little 

 rust from 1937 through 1940, a moderate infection in 1941, and a severe out- 

 break of the disease in 1942, followed by these last two years when there was none. 

 Weather appears to be the determining factor. 



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

 During the year breeding work has been conducted with broccoli, greenhouse 

 cucumber, celery, rutabaga. New York type lettuce, tomato, carrot, and Butter- 

 nut squash. While progress has been made in the development of strains of 

 broccoli, carrot, and celery better adapted for local use, it is insufficient to justify 

 detailed discussion. 



Trellis Tomato. While Trellis No. 22 and Waltham Forcing tomatoes bred 

 at the Waltham Field Station have wide usage as trellis tomatoes, both are some- 

 what inferior in table quality. With the desire to retain the cultural and market 

 characteristics of Trellis No. 22 but to improve table quality, crosses were made 

 several years ago with Marglobe, Rutgers, Michigan State Forcing, and Balti- 

 more. Several selections from these crosses, now in the fifth and sixth generation 

 were tested for yield and market adaptability. Earliness is one of the important 

 characters of a good trellis tomato. Two selections, one a cross between Early 

 Trellis and Marglobe, and the other a cross between Early Rutgers and Early 

 Trellis, produced more early fruit than Trellis No. 22, as well as a greater total 

 yield. Trellis No. 22 had a yield of 10.5 pounds per plant; the Marglobe cross 

 11.0; and the Early Rutgers cross 11.7 pounds. There was no significant differ- 

 ence between the three strains in percentage of No. 1 fruits or in percentage of 

 cracked fruits. Although it has not been possible to keep all the table quality 

 of Rutgers and Marglobe in the two selections, they are an improvement over 

 Trellis No. 22. If the increase in yield is maintained for another year, samples of 

 seed of these selections will be distributed to growers for further testing. 



