Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


and only a few of these are represented by seeds from more
than two or three individual melons. A few additional strains
have arisen through crossing among the various strains, and
some of these show considerable promise as a source of new
types that may prove more valuable than some of those secured
through straight selection. Considerable more time is neces-
sary to fix the various characters of the hybrids than is required
for selection of types from a more or less homogeneous variety.
 During the course of the work a number of selections have
 shown promise one year only to fail in subsequent trials. How-
 ever, one selection from the 1931 field crop tested in 1932 was
 outstanding for resistance and quality and its superiority has
 been maintained since that time. Two types have been isolated
 from this stock and sufficient seeds from one of them were
 harvested in 1935 to plant several acres.
 In the experimental trials of 1935, this melon showed up ex-
tremely well, as may be seen from Figure 1. The field shown
in the illustration has produced melons at least six times during
the past 14 years and large quantities of infective material were
added to the soil for the last two plantings to insure the ex-
posure of all plants to infection. Under these conditions the
various selections of this variety showed percentages of resist-
ance varying upward from 75 percent. Considering the fact
that there is probably not another field in the state with such a
uniformly high soil infestation, it appears that this melon should
prove valuable when grown in soil of lighter infestation.

 DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW MELON
 This melon, which has been designated as the Leesburg, was
developed from the Kleckley Sweet variety, seeds of which were
obtained from a local seedstore, and possesses many characters
of that variety. Kleckley Sweet has long been considered to
have very high quality, but the tenderness of the rind has pre-
vented it from becoming an important commerical variety. Like
most commercial varieties of watermelons, the Kleckley Sweet
is not stable for all characters. Consequently, through continued
self-fertilization and selection, the Leesburg has been isolated.
It possesses certain characters not conspicuous in the Kleckley
Sweet and these are apparently fixed. The more important of
these characters, other than that of increased resistance to wilt,
are the increased toughness of the rind and its lighter color.
 The melon is long and, although it is not quite so long as the