76 CONTROL SERIES No. 115 



TYPE AND VARIETY STUDIES OF VEGETABLES 



Conducted in Conjunction with the Department of Olericulture, 

 Grant B. Snyder, Professor 



Each year tests are conducted by the Experiment Station to determine the 

 trueness to type of vegetable seeds which are offered for sale by the seedsmen in 

 this State. Samples of seed of beets, carrots, turnips, and rutabagas were obtained 

 by State Inspectors and sent to the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion at Amherst, where the Department of Olericulture sowed the seed in field 

 test plots in order to compare plant characteristics with the labeled variety name. 



The soil of the test plot is a fine, sandy loam and is naturally fertile. The land 

 was well prepared and a liberal quantity of fertilizer was applied broadcast. 

 Frequent and timely rains provided an excellent growing season so that growth 

 and development were generally satisfactory. 



Yield records were not taken because it was necessary to use small plots and 

 the number of samples in the test made replication almost impossible. Con- 

 formity to "type" has been the measure of comparison in these tests. "Type" in 

 plants deals with many characteristics such as shape of the marketable part of 

 the plant; relative smoothness, tallness, or dwarfness; different colors of flowers, 

 fruits, or seeds; disease resistance or susceptibility; and many other well defined 

 differences. 



Individual plants have been called "off-type" when they could not be classified 

 in a group of plants ranging fairly close to the average for the particular strain or 

 variety under consideration. 



In studying the comparative type characters and performance records, it is 

 plainly evident that practically all the stocks were true to name and description 

 and most of them were highly productive. In a few instances it appeared as 

 though a slight mixture had occurred, but in no case was it plainly evident that 

 the variety had been misnamed or misrepresented. 



The source of the seed and the laboratory germination records are to be found 

 in the tables on pages 33-75, where the lots of seed used in the field tests are 

 identified by the letter "F" added to the laboratory number. Those seeds tested 

 in the field and not included in the following table were found 100% true to type. 



