fall, it would be frozen during severe winters — once every three or four years. 

 Although the farmers could get better crops by planting in the fall, they 

 could not afford to lose every third or fourth planting. The problem was, 

 therefore, to combine the good stem and head qualities of Little Club with 

 the frost-resisting quaUties of some other variety. 



W. J. Spillman (1869-1931), agriculturist of the experiment station at 

 Pullman, began a series of experiments in crossing, or hybridizing, the Little 

 Club wheat with other varieties. Whichever variety he used as the pollen 

 parent, the same group of characters appeared in the next generation. This 

 agrees with what we have learned as Mendel's law of dominance, although 

 Mendel's work and his special terms were not known to breeders or biolo- 

 gists (see page 475). Spillman found also that among the offspring of hybrids, 

 every possible combination of the grandparents' characters occurred. This 

 agrees with Mendel's principle of segregation. 



480 



