Lots of Things Are Done 
to Make Your Seeds Better 
by UO. H. Pearson 
Dr. Pearson, nationally known plant breeder, 
heads the Eastern States Plant Industry Project. 
As IN THE PasT, the investigational 
program of the Eastern States Plant 
Industry Project for 1946 will in- 
clude checking of distribution lots 
of vegetable seeds and suitable rec- 
ommendations made for distribution 
or disposal. Quality of the great 
majority of distribution seed lots 
tested is fully up to Eastern States 
standards and only an occasional lot 
is rejected. Last year only six percent 
of the lots received at the Buffalo 
seed house could be criticized on uni- 
formity, type, or presence of mix- 
tures. These lots, of course, were the 
crops produced concurrently with the 
much expanded seed program of 
lend-lease in 1944. 
The survey of new sources and va- 
rieties must continue. Much develop- 
mental work by state and private 
agencies has been carried on in spite 
of the war effort, and we expect that 
a number of new things will be re- 
leased for trial and introduction very 
soon by the several state experiment 
stations. New peppers, lettuce and 
sweet corn from Pennsylvania, mel- 
ons, pop corn and lima beans from 
New Hampshire, rutabagas and toma- 
toes from Massachusetts, cabbage and 
onions from New York, cucumbers 
from Maine, and, of course, sweet 
corn from Connecticut are very near 
introduction, and must be compared 
and evaluated for a place in the East- 
ern States program. Cordial relations 
ate maintained with all these agen- 
cies, and we are given opportunity to 
test these new varieties and strains as 
soon as they reach a satisfactory de- 
gree of purity. 
Production of seed has been a mi- 
nor activity at the Feeding Hills 
Plant Industry Project for a number 
of years, often because the quantity 
needed for our distribution was too 
small to interest commercial growers. 
It has ceased to be necessary to do 
this, because the personal contacts de- 
veloped by employees in the seed 
production department with  spe- 
cialty growers will make possible 
production of small lots with a 
greater degree of certainty and un- 
doubtedly at a considerable saving. 
The follow-up contacts in the pro- 
duction areas three or four times each 
year are invaluable in keeping these 
growers alive to our interests, and 
in keeping us informed of new devel- 
opments in that area. Land and time 
that have been devoted to seed pro- 
duction at Feeding Hills will be de- 
voted to production of more items 
of stock seed, which will tend to 
add character to the Eastern States 
vegetable seed program. 
Cooperative work is in progress 
with the Washington Cooperative 
Farmers’ Association in the produc- 
tion of stock seed of Golden Acre cab- 
bage. Approximately 300 plants were 
selected for type, potted, and held 
outdoors in late fall to be sure of suf- 
ficient chilling and then moved into 
the greenhouse for seed production 
late this winter. This seed will be 
shared by Eastern States and the 
Washington group, the costs being 
likewise shared. Cost of stock seed 
on an item like cabbage is not impor- 
tant in the cost of production of the 
seed crop, and the method just out- 
lined maintains adaptation to eastern 
conditions, which is fully as impor- 
tant in cabbage-as it is in corn or to- 
matoes. This type of joint action 
should be encouraged, and the results 
will be as valuable for Eastern States 
as for the cooperating group. 
Where new varieties of greater use- 
fulness appear to be needed, an at- 
tempt is being made to develop them, 
either independently or in conjunc- 
tion with a state agency. A short 
runner squash of the Butternut type 
is nearly ready to be released, in 
which, although the quality is not as 
good as the best, the size of plant has 
been cut down, the leaf area has not 
been decreased, and the number of 
fruits set has been increased. Two new 
Carrot strains are in production now 
that are well colored, vigorous, and 
productive..A highly colored shell 
bean is in the process of increase, and 
a new line of Blue Hubbard squash is 
being built up. Blueprints for an in- 
sect-resistant type of squash, and for 
a higher quality, cold-resistant pro- 
ductive type of late cabbage have 
been drawn up and preliminary steps 
taken to build the variety. 
Field corn investigations have been 
carried on for 10 years, with the last 
six Closely coordinated with the pro- 
gram of the Connecticut Experiment 
Station through the fellowship main- 
tained by the Eastern States at that 
station. 
Seven years ago a number of local 
varieties were collected from Eastern 
States territory by fieldmen, which 
were turned over to Connecticut for 
development of inbreds. Several prom- 
ising lines from Golden Queen, 
Long’s Champion, Patton's Leaming, 
Early Butler, and several New Eng- 
land flints have been isolated as well 
as a number of lines out of Sure Crop, 
which are being tested and elimina- 
tion of the unproductive families will 
result. These will go into further 
competitive tests in combinations, 
and we expect to have hybrids with 
better adaptation to the East in the 
near future. 
Potentialities of the Frankford 
plot for isolation of disease-resistant 
lines are appreciated, and a much 
more extensive use of it is planned for 
the future. Stalk rot was serious in 
the southern territory this year, 
reaching epidemic proportions in 
some localities, but it is always severe 
in southern Delaware and valuable 
material can be secured from these. 
Ly 
