SEED INSPECTION 53 



TYPE AND VARIETY STUDIES OF VEGETABLES 



Conducted in Conjunction with the Department of Olericulture 

 Grant B. Snyder Professor 



Tests are conducted by the Experiment Station each year to determine the 

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

 this State. Seed samples of beans, sweet corn, carrots, beets and spinach were 

 purchased from various stores and seed dealers by State Inspectors and sent to 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station at Amherst, where the De- 

 partment 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 naturalh' fertile. The land 

 was well prepared and a liberal quantit>- of fertilizer was applied broadcast 

 and harrowed into the soil prior to seeding. Growth and development was gen- 

 erally satisfactory except for the spinach trials the seed of which was planted 

 during the late summer. This crop was a failure, hence no records are included 

 in this report. 



Yields of the various crops were not measured because of the necessity of 

 using small plots and also because replication of the plantings was not feasible 

 due to the large number of strains and varieties that were compared. Conformity 

 to type has been the measure of comparison in these tests and 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 all but a few of the stocks were true to name and description 

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

 the variety had been misnamed or misrepresented. This was probably due to 

 the seed shortage during 1943 as well as to inexperienced help that many seeds- 

 men were forced to employ. 



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

 in the tables on pages 28-52, 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 100% true to type. 



