120 



The Journal of Heredity 



tion and the parent species from which 

 it arose suggests that we have actually 

 been witnessing in our controlled pedi- 

 grees the birth of a new species which 

 may be capable of maintaining itself in 

 a mixed population uncontaminated by 

 crossing with its ancestral line. The 

 race is relatively vigorous. In some 

 respects it resembles the "Globe" mu- 

 tation, although not readily confused 

 with the latter type. The leaves are 

 considerably larger and the capsules, 

 while roughly spherical in outline, are 

 not so depressed at the apex nor armed 

 with such stout spines. 



We have shown in this brief presenta- 

 tion that the Jimson Weed possesses 

 characters inherited in simple Mendelian 

 manner; that, in addition, numerous 

 mutations, several of which are figured, 

 have arisen in our cultures; that these 

 mutations transmit their characters as 

 a complex, usually to only a part of their 

 offspring, that the inheritance is chiefly 

 through the female sex; that, in a single 

 instance, a mutation has arisen which 

 seems to have established a distinct race 

 or new species, breeding true but seem- 

 ingly unable to cross with the species 

 from which it has had its origin. 



Live-Stock Production Helped by County Agents in North and West 



Production of more and better live 

 stock with less expensive feed and 

 greater profit to the producers is given 

 attention by county agents in nearly 

 every county in the thirty-three north- 

 ern and western states. 



During the fiscal year 1918 the agents 

 assisted in the organization of 160 live- 

 stock breeders' associations to encour- 

 age the use of better sires, and 182 

 cow-testing associations to eliminate un- 

 profitable cows and bring about more 

 economical feeding. Through these as- 

 sociations and those organized with the 

 assistance of agents in previous years 

 127,835 cows were under test, resulting 

 in at least 8,724 cows being discarded 

 as unprofitable. Primarily, through 

 these organizations, 10,986 farmers 

 were induced to adopt balanced rations 

 for their herds, and the following num- 



ber of registered stock were secured at 

 suggestion of agents : Bulls, 3.285 : 

 cows, 4,836; rams, 1,469, and boars, 

 2,974. The agents also brought about 

 the transfer to other herds of 3,370 

 valuable registered sires by means of 

 information given to individual farmers 

 or through exchange lists published by 

 the farm bureaus. 



In some states a special effort 

 was made to save calves from being 

 slaughtered for veal, resulting in 10,499 

 additional calves being raised. This 

 work was carried on most extensively 

 in Wisconsin, from which 2,459 calves 

 from high-grade or registered stock 

 were shipped for breeding stock to Mis- 

 souri, Wyoming, and other western 

 and southern states. — Weekly A^ezvs 

 Letter, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



