F. KiDD AXD C. West 



117 



"People who use large quantities of sweet com are positive in their 

 belief that seed produced in the eastern states gives better product than 

 that grown at the west." 



In a later communication by the same author ((7i), p. 15) he says: "If 

 a field of sweet corn is planted with two lots of seed of the same variety, 

 one eastern and the other western grown, and ears as uniform as possible 

 as to maturity and quality are gathered from the two parts of the field, 

 processed, and canned in the same way, experts can with a fair degree 

 of certainty decide which lot of seed the corn in different cans was 

 grown from, and they will generally declare that the corn from eastern- 

 grown seed is the better." Tracy's observations on the influence of 

 climatic conditions upon Sweet Corn are confirmed by Duggar(i7), who 

 states that it is now recognised that Sweet Corn grown from the same 

 seed from points north and south in the United States produces seed 

 which when again sown side by side shows marked differences in that 

 the seed from the north will produce plants that will mature earlier^. 



The best data on this question are due to T. Lyon (52). A variety of 

 wheat was grown for several years in different localities, and finally in 

 adjacent plots. The differences in date of ripening and in yield then 

 observed are marked as is seen in the following table : 



Table I. 

 Modification induced in Wheat by its Environment . 



The influence of the climatic environment of the parent plant upon 

 the properties of the seed produced finds many illustrations in recent 

 scientific works dealing with the question of seed germination alone, 

 and has come to be regarded as a matter worthy of notice. For example, 



^ Quite recently Boerker(3) has contrasted seeds produced by Pinus ponderosa 

 growing in the Rocky Mountains witli the seeds produced by this tree growing near the 

 Pacific coast. The seeds of the former are smaller and have a different capacity for ger- 

 mination. This botanist noted somewhat similar differences between the seeds of 

 PseudotsiKja taxifolia from the Rocky Mountain and the Pacific coast regions respectively. 



