Experimental Plant Breeding in Nebraska 



423 



specimens, but like the recent American 

 writers on trees, they appear to have 

 heard of none as large as the one here 

 illustrated. Theysay^: 



"The largest trees of this species, 

 however, have been recorded by Pro- 

 fessor R. Ridgway from southern Indi- 

 ana and Illinois, near Mount Carmel, 

 111. . . . Though the largest trees 

 recorded by him have now been cut, 

 reliable measurements were taken of a 

 tulip tree which reached the astonishing 

 height of 190 feet, exceeding that of any 

 non-coniferous tree recorded in the 

 temperate regions of the northern 

 hemisphere. Another tree cut '8 miles 

 east of Vincennes, was 8 feet across the 

 top of the stump, which was solid to 

 the center; the last cut was 63 feet from 

 the first, and the trunk made 80,000 

 shingles.' The soil here is an exceed- 

 ingly rich, deep alluvium, and the clim- 

 ate in summer very hot and moist. 



"It is stated in Garden and Forest, 

 1897, p. 458, that at the Nashville 

 exhibition a log of this tree was shown 

 by the Nashville, Chattanooga and 

 St. Louis R. R. Co., which measured 

 42 feet long, 10 feet 4 inches in diameter 

 at the butt and 7 feet at the smaller end, 

 containing 1,260 cubic feet of timber, 

 and about 600 years old." 



It is evident that the specimen 

 illustrated in Fig. 14 outranks anything 

 that has hitherto been reported. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Hess, it has never 



6 Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 68. 



before been photographed, and its 

 publication herewith appears to estab- 

 lish a new record for this important 

 species. 



DATA FORMERLY INADEQUATE 



It is evident from the above records 

 that the data on large trees in the 

 United States, heretofore in the hands 

 of men of science, was wholly inade- 

 quate. This was the principal reason 

 why the association undertook to collect 

 photographs, and it is a satisfaction to 

 think that its purpose has been so well 

 carried out, and that, thanks to the 

 cooperation of hundreds of papers in 

 giving publicity to the offer, and to the 

 activity of 300 photographers who 

 enlisted, the amount of available in- 

 formation on the subject has been 

 notably increased. Although the prize 

 offer is now terminated, it is the hope 

 of the association that the expenditure 

 of energy in this direction will not stop, 

 but that tree lovers will be stimulated 

 to more activity, in searching out 

 specimens that can surpass those here 

 recorded; and that they will also be 

 spurred to take whatever steps are 

 necessary to ensure the preservation of 

 these magnificent members of the vege- 

 table kingdom, some of which are certain 

 to succumb to time, disease or greed each 

 year, unless public sentiment interferes 

 and demands their preservation. 



Experimental Plant Breeding in Nebraska 



Work in plant genetics at the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station has 

 been largely concerned with maize and beans. The results obtained throw par- 

 ticiilarly bright light on the inheritance of quantitative characters such as size, 

 which are, obviously, much less easily studied than qualitative characters such as 

 color and pattern. The researches with maize, confirming those with a great deal 

 of other material, indicate that a large number of separate factors are concerned 

 in the production of any apparently simple quantitative character. In the single 

 character of width of a grain of corn, for instance, it was decided that "Missouri 

 dent and Tom Thumb pop probably differed by not over five factors and Missouri 

 dent and California pop by perhaps as many as six factors influencing breadth of 

 seeds." When it is remembered that each of these factors behaves independently 

 in transmission, it will easily be understood how the progeny of crosses shows 

 ' 'almost every possible degree of width, thus giving rise to the condition known as 

 blended inheritance," as distinguished from segregation, where the breadth of 

 seed which characterized one or other of the parents would appear in full. 



