The public agencies introducing anew variety of potato make a joint announcement naming, describing, and "introducing" the variety as soon as modest supplies of stock are available from a few producers of foundation seed. This announcement is directed mainly to seedgrowers and public agencies rather than to the general public and tells where foundation stock is available. Further publicity is released later as seed supplies become more widely available.

Growers of foundation seed and certified seed potatoes are the counterpart of the producer of vegetable seeds. There are hundreds of such growers in the Northern and Western States.

Fewer than a half dozen of them are breeders, whose objectives and methods differ greatly. Some freely exchange their potential varieties, under agreement, very much as public agencies do, and introduce varieties in about the same way. Others operate more nearly as the private breeder-seedsman does.

When the Department of Agriculture introduces a variety of sweet-potato, it usually acts jointly with one or more States. Introduction consists of a joint announcement naming the variety, describing it, and stating where propagating stock is available. In the absence of a well-established seed sweetpotato "industry," initial stock is furnished to a few selected growers who can meet initial demands.

Some State agencies produce and introduce new varieties of sweetpotato independently in a similar fashion, after evaluating them for their own conditions. In a few States, foundation seed organizations or similar groups grow the foundation stock of sweetpotatoes for producers of seed sweetpotatoes.

PUBLIC AGENCIES often introduce new varieties of tree fruits and nuts, grapes, berries, and vegetatively propagated ornamentals through limited numbers of nurserymen or special propagating agencies, from whom other nurserymen purchase their initial foundation stocks. Practices vary so much among agencies and among crops both within and among agencies, however, that it is hardly feasible to speak of any general pattern.

Breeders in public agencies generally propagate promising new fruits and ornamentals themselves for further test and evaluation, but there are exceptions. Most of these breeders also directly supply stock to whatever agencies undertake the propagation of foundation stock.

The Department of Agriculture and some State agencies make no charge for breeder stock supplied to propagators of foundation stock. Other State agencies sell breeder stock.

Rarely does a State agency place breeder stock in the hands of but a single private propagator. The Department of Agriculture never does. Stock of State origin often is furnished to all within a State (usually a small number) who request stock and who qualify as dependable, competent, bona fide propagators of the plant. In a few States, the breeders furnish stock exclusively to State-operated foundation stock enterprises, which sell their product to commercial propagators.

Federal and State agencies commonly establish a formal public introduction date, after which stock of a new sort may be sold to the public. The date is set after consultation with propagators to coincide with the availability of a fair supply of commercial stock.

A few States have organizations of growers and nurserymen or other crop specialists who arrange for effective and fair propagation and distribution of foundation stocks of new varieties. As examples:

The New Jersey Peach Council, Inc., cooperates with the State experiment station on evaluation, is consulted about introduction, and propagates and sells the initial supplies of certified stock.

The New York State Fruit Testing Cooperative Association helps evaluate new varieties bred by State agencies, propagates those specified for propagation, and sells foundation stock of introduced varieties to nurseries and the public.

Oklahoma Foundation Seed Stocks, Inc., receives breeder stock, produces foundation stock of peaches and other fruits for sale to nurseries, and handles foundation seed.

Many serious virus diseases are transmitted by vegetative propagation. Some viruses have been eliminated from some kinds of plants by heat treatment or other means, but generally an infected stock remains so.

Infection of an original stock may render it worthless. Careful controls over the production of original plants and foundation stock of vegetatively propagated varieties are necessary.

As an example of this control, the Foundation Plant Materials Service of the University of California tests both old and new varieties of several fruits, including stone fruits, pears, and grapes, for virus infection. It may take up to 6 years to be sure a stock is free of virus. If the service certifies a stock of a variety to be free of virus, the stock is placed under the supervision of the State department of agriculture, which authorizes nurseries to propagate it. The nurseries then sell propagating material or trees to growers within the State and later to growers elsewhere. The foundation trees are continually tested to assure that they remain free of virus.

After preliminary evaluation of potential varieties of strawberries bred by the Department of Agriculture and cooperating States, virus-free plants are furnished to selected nurseries.

These firms are certified by their respective State control agencies as qualified to propagate stocks under conditions that will keep them virus free.

After 1 to 5 years of evaluation and propagation in these nurseries, a variety may be introduced. The nurseries then supply virus-free stock of it to specified "first-year virus-free stock growers" in various States. These stock growers are certified by their respective State inspection services as qualified to produce foundation stock; they produce commercial plants for sale to strawberry growers.

In breeding blueberries, the Department of Agriculture produces tens of thousands of seeds of controlled parentage each year. The task of growing, propagating, and evaluating seedlings from those seeds is formidable for one agency. The Department therefore enters into cooperative agreements with State experiment stations and with able and interested commercial growers who help do this job.

The Department selects a few of the best seedlings each year for further evaluation. The cooperating growers may propagate and sell a few plants for evaluation studies to cooperating experiment stations and others. By the time any superior seedling is ready for naming and introduction, the original grower of it and a few cooperating fellow-growers will have developed small supplies of propagating material that can be sold to nurserymen and others.

Each kind of fruit crop has its own peculiar problems of propagation, evaluation, and introduction. There are many modifications of the several basic plans described for various fruits to suit specific crops and also sets of circumstances.

THE DEPARTMENT of Agriculture breeds and introduces many varieties of asexually propagated ornamentals, such as lilies, chrysanthemums, and azaleas. When evaluation indicates that a variety merits introduction, it is named and described. An appropriate announcement is sent to commercial propagators.

Upon introduction, a small amount of breeder stock of a variety is furnished to each of a number of nurserymen from a selected list designated by the American Association of Nurserymen, Inc. These selected firms propagate the breeder stock and sell foundation stock to other nurserymen, in accord with an agreement between the Department and the association, which represents the nursery industry in these matters.

Horticultural varieties of fruits and ornamentals that must be propagated vegetatively can be patented in this country. Many of those introduced by private breeders are patented, but public agencies generally do not patent their introductions.

As with seed-propagated varieties, private breeders of vegetatively propagated varieties generally conduct their work in as inconspicuous a manner as possible and retain strict control of their materials. They introduce their new vegetatively propagated varieties in essentially the same way as seed-propagated varieties, except that the former may be patented before it is introduced publicly and offered for sale.

IT IS EASY to state the objective and principles of orderly, effective, and equable introduction of a new variety by a public agency, but it is quite another matter to get the job done.

Together with the numerous segments of the industries involved, we all are continuing to develop procedures and facilities for introducing a very wide range of crop species in progressively better and more mutually satisfying ways.

Scientific and technical competence in crop improvement has been progressing in the vegetable seed industry at the same time as in public research agencies. Some of us believe that henceforth private enterprise can and will conduct a still larger share of the "applied research and development" in producing new, improved varieties of vegetables. This is desirable because it will permit public agencies to give more attention to important basic problems in genetics, pathology, and physiology that must be solved to afford a basis for further progress.

VICTOR R. BOSWELL is Chief, Vegetables and Ornamentals Research Branch, Crops Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Md.