PREVIOUS EXPEKIMEKTS WITH FlEST-GENERATION HYBRIDS. 13 

 EXPERIMENTS IN MAINE. 



The only reference by subsequent workers to Doctor Beal's experi- 

 ments so far as we have ascertained is that of Prof. J. W. Sanborn in 

 reporting a similar experiment in ]\Iaine. 



Professor Beal found that outcrossed corn, as the average of two years of trial, gave 

 as 1:51 is to 100 for inbred corn. I found the same result, or as 252 is to 179, and 

 for fodder as 490 is to 350. The facts have a deep significance to our farmers." 



EXPERIMENTS IN ILLINOIS. 



Nine years after the work of Doctor Beal and apparently in ignor- 

 ance of his results, Mr. G. W. McCluer reported the results of a series 

 of crosses made at the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. He 

 did not give actual yields, but noted the average size of the ear as 

 compared with that of the parents in 18 crosses comprising 14 differ- 

 ent combinations of dent, pop, soft, and sweet corn. In 16 of the 18 

 crosses, or 12 of the 14 different combinations (2 were duplicates and 

 2 reciprocals), the ears of the first-generation hybrid were larger than 

 an average of the parents, and in 4 of the crosses the hybrid ears 

 were larger than those of either parent. One of the exceptions is 

 stated to have been planted in an unfavorable location. The decrease 

 in the other case was 4.6 per cent. The average increase in weight 

 for the whole series was 14 per cent. 



With respect to the uniformity of the first-generation hybrids, 

 McCluer says: 



During the first growing season the uniformity of the crossed plats was very notice- 

 able. Of 142 plats planted with sweet corn, pop corn, and these crosses it is safe to 

 say there was as much uniformity in any one of the crossed plats as in any, and very 

 much more than was found in most, of the plats planted with pure varieties. & 



The following year, 1891, a number of the ears from this crossbred 

 corn were again planted and Mr. ]\IcCluer says: 



Nearly all the corn grown a second year from the crosses is smaller than that grown 

 the first year, though most of it is yet larger than the average size of the parent varie- 

 ties. The cause of this apparent decrease in size, as compared with the previous 

 year, can only be guessed at. It can not be attributed to the season, because the 

 Queen's Golden-Common Pearl pop corn and Gold Coin-Flour corn crosses grown 

 in 1891 show as large a proportionate increase in size of ear as is shown in any 

 of the crosses grown in 1890. There is probably a strong natural tendency in the 

 crosses to revert to the size as well as the form of the parent types. This is shown in 

 the Leaming sweet-corn crosses, in which the corn reverting to the dent is larger 

 than that reverting to the sweet types. Or the loss of size may be due to a diminu- 

 tion in some way of the vigor imparted by crossing." 



"Sanborn, J. W. Indian Corn. Agriculture of Maine, Thirty-Third Annual Re- 

 port, Maine Board of Agriculture, 1889-90, p. 78. 



6 McCluer, G. W. Corn ('rossing. Bulletin 21, Illinois Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, 1892, p. 85. 



cOp. cit., p. 96. 

 191 



