ON THE TOMATO 



unless it will come true from the seed. (The 

 tomato is really a perennial, that is treated as an 

 annual.) 



So the task is not completed when a new vari- 

 ety is produced; additional experiments must be 

 conducted to fix the variety. Even this may be 

 accomplished, however, by careful attention to 

 selection, in the course of a few years, as we have 

 just seen illustrated in the case of the hybrid 

 tomato. 



Nineteen-Year-Old Seed 



Among my later experiments with the tomato 

 were some that had exceptional interest because 

 of the material used. 



It chanced that when I left home in the east, 

 many years before, I brought with me seed of sev- 

 eral of the standard varieties of plants and of 

 some crossbreed varieties; and, as has been 

 pointed out, I was hybridizing tomatoes as well as 

 beans and other plants even at that time. 



The lot of seed thus brought to California 

 included some seeds of the tomato. As was cus- 

 tomary in those days, this seed had simply been 

 pressed out of the fruit, and dried on a piece of 

 paper with the surrounding pulp still clinging to it. 



Nineteen years afterward I planted some of 

 these seeds, being interested to see whether they 

 retained their power of germination. Somewhat 



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