Early Black Beauty is one of the 
best all-’round eggplants 
Early Model beets started early Livingston’s Globe is an early, 
and then transplanted small tomato of fine quality 
Golden Self Blanching celery is a 
tried and proven sort 
New Vegetable Varieties That Have Made Good 
MODERN IMPROVEMENTS ON OLD 
FAVORITES THAT HAVE DEMON¬ 
STRATED THEIR WORTH—SPECIAL 
CULTURAL DIRECTIONS OF VALUE 
Photographs by 
N. R. Graves, E. J. Hall 
Squashes: Early Bush, to the left; Vegetable Mar¬ 
row, at back; Delicata, in the foreground 
and Others 
There are several new strains of the Netted Gem type 
of melon larger than the original 
T ' O the mind of .the uninitiated the “creation’’ of a new veg¬ 
etable variety-is quite a mystery. They look upon each new 
sort described in glowing terms in -color-plated catalogues, as 
absolutely distinct -from anything, that has preceded it — and quite 
naturally, for so-they .are inforined.time 
after time. As a matter of fact, how.ever, 
the number, of new -sorts which arc .defi- 
.nitely different from.their p.redec^asQrs is' 
very small. 
In the popular fancy such plant breeders 
as Burbank are looked upon as wizards, 
who, one would think from press reports, 
sit down with an opium pipe and conjure 
up mental pictures of undreamed-of plants, 
fruits and flowers, 
and forthwith ad¬ 
journ to the labor- 
'atory and concoct 
them of earth, air 
and water and nec¬ 
essary black magic. 
In reality, h o w - 
I ever, the black art 
they use is for the 
most part patience 
and care. “New” 
varieties are creat¬ 
ed generally by “se¬ 
lection,” which is 
nothing more nor 
less than choosing the plants which are to serve as seed producers. 
It is used in two ways: either to get an "improved” plant or fruit 
by using only the best specimens, year after year, for seed; or 
to get a new “type” by choosing specimens for some particular 
characteristic, such as earliness, size, color 
or quality. 
The other method, which comes nearer 
to meriting the term “created,” is to 
“cross” or breed two different varieties. 
Out of hundreds of such new sorts de¬ 
veloped here and there one is found that 
is an improvement over one or both par¬ 
ents ; and even then it is sometimes impos¬ 
sible so to “fix” the new variety, even after 
generations, that it 
will not revert to 
one of the old 
types. 
I mention these 
things in order that 
the reader may be 
better able to esti¬ 
mate for himself a 
little more accur¬ 
ately the real mer¬ 
its of new intro¬ 
ductions. It is to 
be regretted that 
many American 
seedsmen are given 
m ' ■ 
....... ' 
Above is the dry weather cauliflower, a boon for those who have had poor results with other 
varieties; at the left is the Davis Perfect cucumber; at the right, the Melting Sugar melon 
(14) 
