SEED INSPECTION 17 



FIELD TESTS OF VEGETABLE SEEDS 



Type and Variety Studies 



Conducted by the Seed Laboratory 



Waldo C. Lincoln, Jr., Laboratory Assistant 



Under the Supervision of W. H. Lachman. Assistant Research Professor 



Department of Olericulture 



This is the sixteenth year that the Experiment Station has conducted tests to 

 determine the trueness-to-type of various Icinds of vegetable seed offered for sale 

 in this State The State Seed Inspector purchased 300 samples of beans, beets, 

 broccoli, cabbage, carrots, Chinese cabbage, corn, radishes, rutabagas, and 

 turnips for trial in the field test plots in order to compare plant characteristics 

 with the labeled variety name. The 300 samples tested were taken at 76 retail 

 establishments and represent the products of 33 seedsmen who wholesale seed in 

 this State. All lots were hand-seeded in twenty-foot rows, and later thinned to 

 the desired distances. Planting was done May 23, 25, 28, and 29, and growing 

 conditions were good throughout the tests. 



Conformity to type was the measure of comparison in the tests, and individual 

 plants were 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. Field trials were not conducted for the purpose of 

 recording yields but several observations in this connection were noted for Top 

 Crop and Tendergreen beans. In all instances the beans tested were 100 percent 

 true to name, but the same variety from different sources gave widely different 

 yields. In the variety Top Crop, the high producing strain yielded 65 percent 

 more by weight than the poorest producing strain. Comparative figures for 

 Tendergreen indicate a difference of 100 percent. 



