I9I2] Wilder D. Bancroft 389 



ent chemical and physical characters, the resulting crops from the 

 three plots in each Station were identical." 



" Seed grown in Kansas or South Dakota shows either no starchy 

 grains or only about 12 per cent. of such grains, yet when they are, 

 the following year, transported to California and there grown, the per 

 Cent, of starchy grains jumps to 50 and 88 respectively. Such wheat 

 grown in California the previous year and already somewhat accli- 

 mated gave only 40 and 71 per cent. starchy grains respectively, thus 

 possibly showing in another way that wheats taken from a continental 

 climate to a coast climate will show a lower value or greater deteriora- 

 tion the first year than seed acclimated in a coast climate. The reverse 

 is just as true when wheat grown in a coast climate is transported to 

 a continental climate. In this case, the California seed with 87 per 

 cent. starchy grains gave a crop in South Dakota with only 2 per cent. 

 starchy grains, whereas the South Dakota continuously-grown seed 

 had 12 per cent. such grains. The California Crimean with 64 per 

 cent. starchy grains gave a crop in Kansas with absolutely no appear- 

 ance of starchy grains. It was, in fact, identical with the Kansas 

 continuously-grown seed. These figures again show what a tremen- 

 dous factor climate is. Many physical and chemical characteristics 

 are thus influenced by the climatic conditions. These results show 

 that the white spots on grains are not transmitted from an hereditary 

 Standpoint, nor, in fact, are any of the characteristics above men- 

 tioned. They appear, rather, to be influenced almost altogether by 

 climatic conditions prevailing during the growing or pre-growing 

 period. In California the weight per 1,000 and the weight per bushel 

 are much larger than in Kansas. The per cent. of protein and the per 

 cent. of flinty kerneis are much less. The per cent. of sugar seems to 

 increase in California over what it was or is in the Kansas and South 

 Dakota seed, though this increase is rather small. There is not much, 

 if any, difference in the per cent. of fat, fiber, pentosans, and ash. 

 Similar difjferences are observed between California and Texas, and 

 Kansas and Texas, though in these cases the differences are not so 

 large. Texas is somewhat intermediate." 



In these experiments the adaptation during life is apparently 

 the important thing, though the alleged acclimatization, if estab- 

 lished, would be a case of inheritance. These experiments, like 

 those of Beebe on the plumage of the tanager and the bobolink, 

 show the variations due to external conditions and seem to me to 

 constitute a very strong argument for a more systematic and more 

 rational study of the effect of environment during the life of the 



