402 REPORT OF THE HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT OF THE 
at least one meritorious fruit, the Hunn strawberry, have been given 
to horticulture. In the beginning the chief aim was to originate 
new varieties; but more and more, as the work has been carried 
forward, new varieties have become incidental and now plant breed- 
ing for itself is given chief attention. This Department is now at- 
tempting, and has made some progress, in breeding all of the tree 
fruits, grapes, red raspberries, strawberries and several of the vege- 
tables. Roughly grouped, the objects in carrying on this work are, 
at the present time: 
(1) A study in the correlations of the different characters of 
plants. Professor S. A. Beach, formerly in charge of the work, 
has made several contributions to the knowledge of this subject 
from work done on the Station grounds.! 
(2) Investigations of the laws of inheritance and variability. 
A paper on this phase of plant breeding containing a record of the 
behavior of crossed tomatoes was presented by the writer and Mr. 
N. O. Booth at the fifth annual meeting of the Society of Horticul- 
tural Science.? 
(3) The adaptation of plants to new environment. To this end 
the Station is now testing about 1760 varieties of American and 
foreign fruits. | 
(4) The development of hardy plants. The peach is the special 
object of study in this case. Considerable preliminary work has 
been done in the study of the factors which influence hardiness of 
the peach. A plantation of all obtainable varieties, 258 sorts, has 
been set for experimental and breeding purposes, with special refer- 
ence to hardiness. 
(5) The development of resistance to disease. Illustrative of 
this work two examples may be cited. Several hundred seedling 
pears are now being grown from parents more or less immune to 
pear blight, with the possibility of getting a variety comparatively 
immune to this disease. All obtainable varieties of head lettuce 
have been grown and selections and crosses made in the hope of 
getting a variety that will withstand “ lettuce rot” and “ tip-burn.” 
*Grape Breeding: Size, Weight and Specific Gravity of the Seed as 
correlated with Germination and Vigor of the Seedling. Proceedings of 
the Society for Horticultural Science, 1: 42. 
?Mendelian Characters in Tomatoes. Proceedings of the Society for 
Horticultural Science, 1907. (In press.) 
*U. P. Hedrick: Factors Affecting Hardiness of the Peach. Inter- 
national Conference on Plant Breeding,, New York, 1907, p. 19. 
