8 The Colorado Experiment Station. 
VARIATIONS OP INDIVIDUAL SELECTIONS. 
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 resist¬ 
ance 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 attention, but by planting each separately it was 
evident that it makes a vast difference in results which one was 
chosen for seed, even from a number of seemingly choice specimens. 
The first contrast noted was the variation in the germination 
of the plats, which ranged from forty to one hundred percent 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 ap¬ 
parent 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 ripening of some of the plats 
most affected with the fungus, and as the most rust resistant selec¬ 
tions were usually the latest maturing plats, yet it was clear from 
the early setting and development of the plats before the disease 
was manifest, 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 asso¬ 
ciated with excellent melons in regard to netting, form and size, 
in some plats, while in others the qualities were inferior in this 
respect. 
When the pedigrees were traced a general uniformity pre¬ 
vailed in the plats whose seed had a common parentage a year or 
two previous, yet irregularities were constantly appearing in the 
products 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. 
