784 Fluctuations 



my experiment, wliile 100,000 ears would afford 

 a chance of one with 32 rows.* Had I been 

 able to secure and inspect this number of ears, 

 perhaps I would have needed only a year to get 

 an average of 20 rows. This however, not be- 

 ing the case, I have worked for seven years, but 

 on the other hand have cultivated all in all only 

 about one thousand individuals for the entire 

 experiment. 



Obviously this reduction of the size of the ex- 

 periment is of importance. One hundred 

 thousand ears of corn could of course, be se- 

 cured directly from trade or from some indus- 

 trial culture, but corn is cultivated only to a 

 small extent in Holland, and in most cases the 

 requisite number of individuals would be larger 

 than that afforded by any single plantation. 



Repeated selection is thereby seen to be the 

 means of reducing the size of the required cul- 

 tures to possible measures, not only in the ex- 

 perimental-garden, but also for industrial pur- 

 poses. A selection from among 60000 - 100000 

 individuals may be within reach of Burbank, 

 but of few others. As a rule they prefer a 

 longer time with a smaller lot of plants. This 



* On about 200 ears the variability ranges from 8-22 rows, 

 and this leads approximately to one row more by each doubling 

 of the numbers of instances. One ear with 22 rows in 

 200 would thus lead to the expectation of one ear with 32 

 rows in 100.000 ears. 



