130 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



April 26, 1913. 



deals with in a paper by \V. A. Orton describing Ameri- 

 can work on the raising of disease-resistant strains of 

 cultivated plants. In this it was show that disease- 

 resistance in Sea Island cotton is a hereditary factor 

 but of a physiological and not of an anatomical nature. 

 In other words the faculty for resistance does not seem 

 to be correlated with any particular form of structure. 



In two other papers, several factors in the selec- 

 tion of maize were considered. The American work 

 on the crossing of Chinese maize having a waxy 

 endosperm with American varieties having a horny 

 endosperm was cited in a paper by (>. N. Collins and J. 

 Kempton, and it was shown that the horny endosperm 

 was dominant in the first generation. A seemingly new 

 idea in regard to maize was the investigation of the 

 relation between the position of the seed on the spike 

 and the fold of the first leaf. Such a relation was shown 

 to e.xist by R. H. Compton in a paper entitled Right 

 and Left-handedness in Maize. Generally speaking, 

 odd rows of seeds in the cob give an excess of seedlings 

 in which the right-hand margin of the leaf curves 

 over the left, the observer standing with his back to 

 the mid-rib. 



Of other tropical plants dealt with in the papers at 

 this conference, reference must be made to the account 

 by W. T. Swingle of the crossing of two species of citrus. 

 ■The curious hybrids of the first generation were what 

 are now well known as the cold resistant citranges of 

 Florida. It was suggested that this remarkable muta- 

 tion was due to alteration in the position of the chro- 

 mosomes, bodies in the germ cells which are believed to 

 be the carriers of I\lendelian factors. 



Among the matters having a more general bearing 

 upon plant breeding may be mentioned the opinion 

 expressed in a lengthy paper by E. (iriffon, on grafting 

 and sexual hybridization. It was concluded that speciiic 

 differences cannot arise from buds on the stock and 

 ■scion, though they may arise from th«; asexual union of 

 cells on the cushion of the graft, a phenomenon closely 

 allied to parthenogenesis. The importance of this 

 latter form of reproduction was strongly emphasized in 

 several other papers. As is well known, parthenogenesis 

 is common in the Hawkweeds (H ieracimn), in the 

 cucumber and other plants, and consists in the develop- 

 ment of the ovule without fertilization by the pollen 

 grain. It will be obvious that m plants provided with 

 this form of reproduction there can be no Mendelian 

 segregation and the i)rogeny of parthcnogenetic hybrids 

 will therefore always breed true. 



Considerations on the fertility of Howers suggests 

 an important reference in a paper by Major Hurst des- 

 cribing the work of the Burbage Experiment Station in 

 lingland. In this comuumication attention was called 

 to self-sterility — a phenomenon to which Bateson and 

 other biologists attach much importance. It was found 

 that there existed a high degree of self-scerility in the 

 Howers of cabbages, that is. cross- fertilization is necessary 

 for the production of fertile seed. Now selection on Men- 

 delian lines depends upon self-fertilization or in-breed- 

 ing, hence the occurrence of self-fertility is a barrier to 

 selection along these lines. Since reference has just 

 been made to the paper in which this point is brought 

 out, it will be convenient here to outline in a general 

 way, the nature of the genetic investigations conduct- 

 ed at the Burbage Experiment Station. .Successful 

 attempts are being made to ascertain the genetic con- 

 stitution of various agricultural and horticultural 

 plants with a view to obtaining improved varieties by 

 hybridization. The work, however, is not confined to 

 plants. The characters of the various breeds of poultry, 

 live-stock and horses are being examined and the 

 pedigrees of local families are also registered in order 

 to determine what human characteristics segregate as 

 dominant and recessive factors. 



So far in the publication under consideration 

 those matters have been abstracted which are likely to 

 be of direct interest in the West Indies, but it must 

 be pointed out that no reference has been made to 

 a large number of pajiers dealing with more abstract 

 lines of investigation. Although of great biological 

 interest, these possess at present but little economic 

 significance. Nevertheless they are heljiing to eluci- 

 date new problems that have arisen out of investiga- 

 tions in the past; and they are leading to the concep- 

 tion of new ideas which may in time prove to be of 

 the greatest practical importance. 



VALUE OF THE UPPER AND LOWER 

 . HALVES OF THE SUGARCANE. 



An article by Irving H. Morse in the Louisiana Planter 

 for January 4, 1913, calls attention to the advantages of 

 working mature and immature parts of the sugar-cane sepai^ 

 ately. That an innovation of this kind might be advanta- 

 geous to sugar manufacturers in Louisiana where the purity 

 is comparatively low when considered witli that of West 

 Indian juice, is a matter of some possibility, but in these 

 islands, under normal conditions, the idea would not appear 

 to be practicable However, the .subject possesses several 

 points of interest which may receive consideration here. 



In summing up the advantages of his idea of working 

 the mature and immature parts of the cane separately, Morse 



