38 BULLETIN 859, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Examination of the fruit produced in this experiment showed that 

 both normal and hollow fruits were to be found on every plat. Com- 

 plete counts could not be made, owing to the destruction of the 

 vines by a flood before the end of the season, but enough observa- 

 tions were made to show that within the limits used varying quantities 

 of fertilizer elements did not influence the production of hollow fruit. 



No positive results were obtained in this study showing the cause 

 of puffiness in tomatoes, but the evidence indicated that the con- 

 dition is not correlated with any considerable differences in the 

 chemical composition of the mature fruit. The phenomenon is 

 probably physiological in its nature, for the same varieties which 

 show it in Florida are said not to do so, or only to a very slight extent, 

 when grown in Michigan. A great difference that immediately 

 occurs to one between conditions in the two places is that in Florida 

 the crop is produced only through heavy annual applications of 

 commercial fertilizers, which are not used in Michigan. Puffiness 

 may therefore be dependent upon an unbalanced soil solution, but, 

 if so, none of the variations in the fertilizers just enumerated sufficed 

 to restore a proper condition. It is, of course, not inconceivable that 

 puffiness is of a genetical nature and due to somatic variation. If so, it 

 might, in conformity with the observed facts, be much more frequent 

 in some varieties than in others, and the same plant might show ooth 

 normal and "puffy" fruit. The whole subject is one which needs 

 investigation. 



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