igii 



BETTER FRUIT 



Pag^ 33 



FANCY PACKED STRAWBERRIES 

 Labeled and ready to be shipped by Davidson 

 Fruit Co., Hood River, Oregon 



fields with him in Southern Indiana a 

 short time ago." 



From John W. Lloyd of the Univer- 

 sity of Illinois Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, Urbana, Illinois, October 2, 1907: 



"The melon seed you so kindly sent 

 me last spring exceeded my highest 

 expectations in reference to rust-resist- 

 ance under Illinois conditions. I dis- 

 tributed the seed among a number of 

 the commercial growers located at differ- 

 ent points. Many growers lost, or failed, 

 to plant the seed, or did not secure a 

 stand, but with all who succeeded in 

 growing a crop the results were the 

 same. The vines remained green and 

 vigorous after other melons were dead 

 from the rust; the melons netted exceed- 

 ingly well and were fine flavored. The 

 only objection raised against the melon 

 was its late maturity; in some cases the 

 entire crop from other varieties had been 

 marketed before any ripe specimens of 

 the rust-resistant could be found. It is 

 true that the maturity of the other varie- 

 ties was hastened by the rust. 



"I belive this melon will be exception- 

 ally valuable for extending the season 

 after other varieties are gone. However, 

 in our experimental plat, where the 

 other varieties were protected by spray- 

 ing and the rust-resistant plants left 

 unsprayed, there was not so much differ- 

 ence in the time of ripening, though 

 the rust-resistant were somewhat later. 

 Toward the end of the season the 

 unsprayed rust-resistant vines were in 

 better condition than the sprayed vines 

 of the other variety. 



"The small lot of exceptionally select 

 seed which you sent was planted by 

 itself at a distance from other melons, 

 and the plants thinned to one in a hill. 

 There was considerable difference in the 

 rust-resistance of different plants, and I 

 have saved seed from some of the most 

 resistant with a view of planting each 

 separately and making further selection 

 next year." 



The results of the investigation have 

 demonstrated the possibility of control- 

 ling, to some extent at least, the injuries 

 from the "rust" fungus by systematic 

 seed selection and breeding. 



The seed of eighty choice individual 

 cantaloupes of the rust-resistant strain 

 were planted on alfalfa sod in blocks of 

 twenty-five hills each under as uniform 

 conditions as possible. The object of 

 this test was to determine the efficiency 

 of the disease resistance on soil less 

 affected with the fungus and to study 



the problems of individual variation 

 from individual selections, with a view of 

 improving other characters in the Rocky 

 Ford cantaloupe. 



The test did not reveal any greater 

 disease resistance by virtue of the alfalfa 

 sod, but a marked contrast in the degree 

 of resistance was revealed in the plats of 

 different individual selections. 



The variations of some of the plats 

 made it easy, to distinguish their outlines 

 after the vines had run together and 

 completely covered the ground in the 

 field. The seed was all of the same 

 variety and had been carefully selected 

 for several years, and was considered a 

 pure strain. 



Had the seed been jumbled together 

 and planted as usual the contrast and 

 variations of the different selections 

 would not have appeared to attract atten- 

 tion, but by planting each separately it 

 was evident that it makes a vast differ- 

 ence in results which one was chosen for 

 seed, even from a number of seemingly 

 choice specimens. 



The first contrast noted was the varia- 

 tion in the germination of the plats, 

 which ranged from forty to one hundred 

 per cent, and was clearly the result of 

 vitality in the selections, the date of first 

 setting fruit varied eight to ten days in 

 different plats without apparent reason, 

 and the time of ripening of some of the 

 plats was prolonged to nearly three 

 weeks, though this difference may have 

 been partly due to the premature ripen- 

 ing of some of the plats most affected 

 with the fungus, and as the most rust- 

 resistant selections were usually the 

 latest maturing plats, yet it was clear 

 from the early setting and development 

 of the plats before the disease was mani- 

 fest that some of the plats were much 

 earlier than others. There were also 

 various combinations of the different 

 qualities in the different plats. For 



instance, the rust-resistant feature was 

 associated with excellent melons with 

 reference to netting, form and size in 

 some plats, while in others the qualities 

 were inferior in this respect. 



When the pedigrees were traced a gen- 

 eral uniformity prevailed in the plats 

 whose seed had a common parentage a 

 year or two previous, yet irregularities 

 were constantly appearing in the prod- 

 ucts of some of the selections, and also 

 the tendency to breed true seemed 

 equally characteristic of others. In one 

 instance the color of the flesh and the 

 solidly filled seed cavity was uniformly 

 reproduced for four succeeding years. 



The variations of the individual selec- 

 tions seemed to come from no other rea- 

 son than the inherent tendency of the 

 individual, for the whole plat had the 

 same care in every respect possible. 



The recent application of Mendel's 

 laws of heridity offers an explanation of 

 the results observed in this experiment. 

 The heterozygous unit factors of some 

 of the selections produced the irregular 

 variations, while the homozygous, or 

 pure unit factors of others, resulted in 

 characters breeding true. 



So far in the investigation we have 

 employed only seed selection to secure 

 the desired results, but now the need of 

 hybridization is manifest to combine the 

 desired qualities found in different selec- 

 tions, for simple seed selection has been 

 inadequate to this object. To combine 

 the rust-resistance with earlier maturity 

 is much desired, and to this end observa- 

 tions and tests have been made during 

 the past season to ascertain the fact and 

 methods necessary for artificial cross- 

 fertilization of the cantaloupe flowers. 

 As a result several cross-pollenizations 

 were made between some of the best 

 selections of the rust-resistant strain 

 and an abnormal early setting plant of 

 another strain known as the "Watters." 



