14 The Colorado Experiment Station. 
plants grown in soil which has not grown tomatoes before, and 
in rotating the crops, so that tomatoes do not follow tomatoes. 
A CABBAGE BREEDING EXPERIMENT. 
The Cross cabbage, which is extensively grown in Greeley for 
shipping, is believed to be an accidental cross between the Winning- 
stadt, and Henderson’s Flat Dutch. This cabbage is globe shape 
in form, and is about half way in season between its two parents. 
Since the origin of this variety at Greeley by Mr. John Levy, the 
seed has been grown at that place, so that the variety has been kept 
practically as first introduced. This cabbage has proved very de¬ 
sirable in the district, but has had one serious failing. Great care 
has been exercised by those who grow the seed to select heads that 
were true to type for growing the seed. Notwithstanding this pre¬ 
caution, there is cpiite a per cent, of the crop that has reverted each 
year to one or the other of the parents, that is, there are always in 
the field, many heads that are flattened as the Flat Dutch, and many 
that are pointed as the Winningstadt. Some of the growers have 
laid this to uncongenial soil or climatic conditions under which the 
cabbages were grown. According to Mendel’s law, some of these 
plants should have an inherited tendency to revert each year to the 
original parentage. In order to ascertain if this principal were true 
with cabbages, and also to eliminate the trouble if possible, an ex¬ 
periment was started a year ago. First, individual heads of this 
type were selected in the fall of 1908 for growing seed the following 
year. In the spring of 1909, several of these heads were planted 
separately in different places where there would be no chances for 
the seed to cross pollinate. The rest of the heads were planted in 
a single row in a garden. All the plants that were set by them¬ 
selves were sterile or practically so; only a few small seed being 
developed. Seed was saved from all of the other plants separ¬ 
ately, as well as from the several plants from a field at Greeley. 
These seed were sown separately in the spring of 1910. Later they 
were transplanted to the field, and stakes set so as to mark off the 
progeny of each separate plant. Some interesting and valuable 
results have followed. Of the fifty plants whose progeny was set 
in the field, only four plots produced heads that were all true 
to the Cross type. Great variations occurred in the rest of the plots. 
Some were pointed, following the Winningstadt type, both in 
shape and earliness; others followed the Flat Dutch, the other 
parent. In many plots fiat, pointed and globe cabbages all came 
from the same plant. The plants from the plots that were all true 
to the type have been saved for further experiment, as have also 
some of the heads of good type from the plots that had various 
types. Theoretically these plants that are all true to type this 
year, should continue true to this type. If this proves true, the 
trouble from changing the type of head will be at an end. 
