Aside from its usual functions, the main activity of the Tomato Genetics Cooperative during the past year has been to revise the list of nomenclatorial rules to be acceptable to a majority of members and to prepare a list of known genes, together with references and sources of stock. Both lists together with reports of the respective committees are presented in this Report. We wish to take this opportunity to thank these committees and all other members who assisted in completing this very useful service. We trust that members will join in the spirit of the Cooperative in following the recommendations of the Committee on Nomenclature and that we will thereby be spared some of the difficulties that have beset groups working with other organisms. If members know of any errors that should be corrected or additions made in the list of genes, we would be very grateful to learn of them. The usual list of available stocks is not included in this Report since most of this information is given in the sources indicated in the gene list.
Dr. L. Butler was elected to replace Dr. A. Frazier on the Coordinating Committee. In attempting to maintain regional representation on the Committee, we feel that the large group of foreign members, particularly from Canada, deserves representation to a greater extent at this time than the northwestern states.
Membership as of December 31, 1953 totalled 149, including 41 foreign members representing 21 different countries. Fifteen members listed in TGC No. 3 did not pay assessments for 1953; it is our unanimous opinion that no one should be kept on the membership roll or receive TGC Reports unless his assessment is paid for the respective year. New members joining during 1953 totalled 24, the net gain being 9.
The cost of issuing TGC No. 3 was much higher than that of previous Reports largely because it was a much larger Report and because nearly twice as many copies were prepared as the number of members. It is always difficult to decide how many copies should be issued, but, considering the turnover in membership and the sale of back numbers, we feel that the Cooperative and others will benefit in the long run by issuing a reasonable number of copies above the memership total. Three hundred copies of the present Report have been prepared. The cash balance as of December 31, 1953 was $67.42.
We gratefully acknowledge the willing help of the following people in preparing this Report. Dora Hunt, Eduardo Alverez and Anand Sawant prepared the covers, assembled the Report, and helped in many other ways. Virginia Borelli and Ruby Akiyoshi typed the stencils.
Coordinating Committee
C. F. Andrus C. M. Rick, Chairman
D. W. Barton Department of Vegetable Crops
A. Burdick University of California
L. Butler Davis, California