LEE BARKER WALTON 79 



acreage yield of fifty bushels, there would with a proper 

 supply of plant food be a production of two hundred, two 

 hundred and fifty or even three hundred bushels. Instead 

 of politicians with no perspective beyond their immediate 

 welfare — a reelection — instead of college presidents and 

 faculties with their numerous shortcomings — according to 

 the students and occasionally the trustees — there would 

 be the ideal individual bred to specification and not neces- 

 sarily made in Germany. 



Unfortunately, variations with a perverseness incom- 

 prehensible uniformly refused to accumulate in the man- 

 ner desired and at times even demonstrated their obsti- 

 nacy by retrogression. It was plainly evident that there 

 were limits imposed by nature not easily passed, and in 

 connection with which much experimental work must 

 be undertaken before definite progress was made and the 

 facts fully understood. 



With a realization of the difficulties involved in an at- 

 tempt to apply evolution, it will be well to pause for a 

 moment and consider certain fundamental principles be- 

 fore discussing the results of some of the investigations 

 which for a time at least promised much toward the 

 solution of the problem. Thus it may be stated that evo- 

 lution in its different modifications postulates in general 

 ( 1 ) the occurrence of numerous varying individuals, some 

 of which are (2) eliminated by environmental stimuli 

 leaving few or no offspring, while (3) the survivors 

 transmit to their progeny the characters which proved of 

 selective value, with the result that (4) through the con- 

 tinuation of the process the race eventually becomes 

 adapted to surrounding conditions. The first two propo- 

 sitions are merely statements of fact. The real difficulties 

 of the situation are those of ascertaining how variations 

 which are transmitted may be recognized and produced 

 so that the result will be a cumulative one. Until this is 

 done breeders must continue to proceed in the same hap- 

 hazard manner that they have followed for countless 

 generations. 



By selecting the largest and most perfect ears of seed 

 corn from the variations present in the field, conversely 



