22 CONTROL SERIES NO. 131 



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 various kinds of vegetable seeds which are offered for sale by 

 the seedsmen in this State. Samples of seed of beans, beets, carrots, corn, rad- 

 ishes, rutabagas, spinach and turnip were purchased by the State Inspectors and 

 sent to the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station at Amherst, where 

 the Department of Olericulture planted 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, well drained and naturally fertile. 

 The land was fitted in the usual manner and a liberal quantity of fertilizer was 

 applied broadcast. A severe drouth during July and early August interfered to a 

 considerable extent with best development of the crops. The spinach plantings 

 bolted to seed very early so that this crop was a complete failure. 



Yield records were not taken because of the necessity of using small plots and 

 also because replication of the plantings was not feasible owing to the large num- 

 ber of strains and varieties tested. Conformity to type has been the measure of 

 comparison, and individual plants have been called off-type when they could 

 not be classified in a group of plants ranging fairly close to the type generally 

 accepted as typical for the particular variety under consideration. 



In studying the performance records it becomes evident that most of the stocks 

 were true to name and most of them appeared to be highly productive. A few 

 of the lots were evidently poor in germinating ability and so a reading from 

 these lots was impossible. 



In a few instances it appeared that the variety had been misnamed or mis- 

 represented but usually these were reasonably good substitutions. Many of 

 the rutabagas were rather badly mixed with turnips, and this has been the case 

 for several years. Several bad mixtures were evident among the lots of sweet 

 corn, and variation in tassel color indicates that a better job of detasseling is 

 necessary in the production fields of hybrids. The quality of the beet stocks has 

 been improving for several years, the carrots were also good. It was evident 

 that a few cases of outright misrepresentation among the various stocks had 

 taken place. 



The source of the seed and the laboratory germination is given together with 

 remarks on conformity to type, except that those lots of seed which were tested 

 in the field and were found 100% true-to-type are not included in this table. 



