Rails - May 2006 - Cant read an Array as an attribute of a record

I am trying to check the size of an array in a newly created object, and 
am getting an "undefined method" error. I have written a minimal test 
case. Can someone spot the issue here? I''m sure I''m missing
something
simple....

I realize that I''m not saving the object to the database, I''ve
got a
requirement to create and manipulate it in memory before persisting it.

Thanks in advance to anyone who may help!

Test/app/db/migrate/001_create_test_objects.rb
------------------------------------------------------------------
class CreateTestObjects < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :test_objects do |t|
      t.column :name, :string
      t.column :test_array, :string
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :test_objects
  end
end

Test/app/models/test_object.rb
------------------------------------------------------------------
class TestObject < ActiveRecord::Base
  serialize :test_array
  def initialize
    @test_array = []
    puts "Called constructor"
    puts @test_array.size
    # This Works!!!
  end
end

Test/app/controllers/test_object_controller.rb
------------------------------------------------------------------
class TestObjectController < ApplicationController
  def test_case
    @test_object = TestObject.new
    puts @test_object.test_array.size
    # This doesn''t work!!!
  end
end

http://localhost:3000/test_object/test_case
------------------------------------------------------------------
undefined method `test_array'' for #<TestObject:0x39e4030
@test_array=[]>

RAILS_ROOT: ./script/../config/..
Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace

#{RAILS_ROOT}/app/controllers/test_object_controller.rb:4:in
`test_case''
-e:3

<...snip...>

Console Log
------------------------------------------------------------------
127.0.0.1 - - [05/May/2006:23:38:33 Eastern Standard Time] "GET 
/test_object/test_case HTTP/1.1" 500 7836
- -> /test_object/test_case
Called constructor
0

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