4 Donald Reddick 



eluded that this variety is highly resistant for the alpha and beta races 

 of Collet otrichum Undemuthianum, he communicated this conclusion 

 orally to the writer. Several plants both of White Imperial and of 

 Robust stood on the greenhouse bench in full bloom. Reciprocal crosses 

 were made on that and subsequent days as flowers reached a suitable 

 stage for artificial cross-pollination. 



MATERIALS AND OBJECTIVE 



There are many dry-shell beans of various sizes, colors, and shapes on 

 the market. In addition there are perhaps more which are grown in a 

 limited way for home consumption. There is no reason to believe that 

 many of these are really worth perpetuating, at least so far as intrinsic 

 worth is concerned. It seemed desirable, therefore, to concentrate all 

 effort on the production of a white bean which would conform to certain 

 of the types now in large commercial production, such as White Marrow, 

 Navy Pea, and Burlingame (Medium) . 



White Imperial does not conform to any of these types. The variety 

 requires a long growing period to mature fully. This restricts the area 

 in New York in which the variety can be produced at all, and, perhaps 

 equally important, it interferes with a well-established and very satis- 

 factory system of rotation which is followed in most of the New York 

 regions of greatest bean production and which involves the fitting of 

 bean land for seeding to winter wheat, in addition, the shape of the 

 dry seed does not conform to any of the well-known types. It is oblong. 

 It is not plump enough for White Marrow, nor for Medium. It is much 

 too long for Navy Pea, and it is too straight and too short for White 

 Kidney, a type which is fairly well known in the trade. White Imperial 

 also is of determinate growth. This is regarded by some growers as an 

 undesirable character. They claim, for example, that in case of un- 

 favorable weather at flowering time there is more chance for the plants 

 of indeterminate growth to set a crop. The exact importance of this 

 factor does not seem to have been an object of study, and it may be 

 questioned whether i1 more Hum offsets the advantage of having the pods 

 held clear of the ground at harvest time when the crop may be destroyed 

 by rot and mold following wet weather. Aside from its very high re- 

 sistance to anthracnose, the variety has, to commend it as a parent, its 

 very large and vigorous growth. 



Robust, on the other hand, has much in its favor. It is a high-yielding 

 typical Navy Pea type. It is immune to mosaic and practically immune 

 to race beta (and subsequently was found practically immune to race 

 gamma and also possessing more resistance to bacterial blight than most 

 of the varieties in cultivation). The only characters that could be called 

 objectionable are that the variety is very susceptible to race alpha and 



