52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Oct. 



offers us the great chance to produce the superior plants and 

 animals. We do not want plants and animals like the plants and 

 animals of today, we w^ant better ones. 



De CandoUe's law that we are not to move plants more than 

 one degree north or south unless we wish to change the nature of 

 the plants is nicely illustrated by the farmers who buy southern 

 corn for the silo. Frequently the corn makes larger stalks and 

 leaves than it would do in the south but the ears are smaller. 

 Two of our men have harvested as much as nineteen tons of 

 ensilage from each of twenty acres. Our farmers buy potatoes 

 from the north to plant for seed. In the tropics, the potato and 

 the tomato go largely to vine. The potatoes and tomatoes of the 

 tropics are about as large as walnuts. But in the north the 

 the potatoes and tomatoes go less to vine and more to seed and 

 seed covering, that is to fruit. The same has been found true of 

 beans. 



Mendelian Laws. 



Gregor Mendel was monk and abbot of the monestary at 

 Briinn. He bred peas and bred them in large numbers. He was 

 very careful to tabulate results and from that work he discovered 

 the laws which now go under his name. The first great fact to 

 be noted is that Mendel found order in heredity. He found math- 

 ematical order where others could see nothing but confusion. 

 He found that v/hen certain things such as peas with starch or 

 sugar, peas v,^ith white or*green coverings, peas that are tall and 

 peas that are short are crossed with each other the starch, the 

 dark colors, and the tallness dominate or show in the hybrid gen- 

 eration. He called the hidden factor recessive. 



But if the crosses are again bred together we get either of the 

 original starch or sugar, white or green, tall or short in a three to 

 one ratio. 



The discoveries of Mendel were published in a little paper, 

 the Proceedings of the Natural History Society of l^runn. The 

 paper had few readers, and hence the discoveries attracted little 

 attention until about 1890 when DeVries of Holland, and others 

 read the paper and saw the meaning of Mendel's discoveries. 

 From 1890 up until now, the Mendelian laws have been the basis 

 for much of our work in plant and animal breeding. But though 

 they have been helpful, they have not helped so m.uch as the 



