Francis: Double Seeding Petunias 461'. 



for the experiments in improving races, variety for what I desired to produce, 



He asserts that half the battle is won in and if the entire stock of these strains - 



choosing the variety which is to serve as should be lost, with my present knowl- 



a foundation stock, while the other edge I could consciously choose the 



half depends upon the selection of right variety and the right seed parents 



parent plants within that variety." I in that variety and other strains of 



blindly striving to realize my ideal seed producing double petunias could- 



unconsciously chose the most favorable be developed, 

 variety and the right parents in that 



Heredity in the Soy Bean 



Inheritance of chemical characters of the soy bean is under investigation at the- 

 Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, while the experiment is also being' 

 used to bring to light the mode of inheritance of morphological characters. A 

 similar investigation relates to Datura, the primary object of which is to learn how 

 the alkaloidal content of the plants is influenced by heredity. The usual practical, 

 lines of breeding of old or new varieties are also carried on. 



Hybrid Histology 



Histological study of hybrids, a subject too much neglected by genetists, is^ 

 reported from the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station, particularly with 

 reference to interspecific crosses of tobacco, and a cross between the radish and 

 kohlrabi. A study of the cells of hybrids shows that in many cases the supposed 

 dominance visible in external characters is more or less of an illusion. Of 121 

 characters of hybrid plants studied in this investigation, it was found that 100 were 

 intermediate between those of the two parents. "A hybrid character that appears 

 to show pure dominance may upon close examination be found to be intermediate 

 if its structural basis be examined." This was one of the early discoveries of the 

 pioneer genetists who submitted Mendel's laws to such critical tests, following 

 their rediscovery in 1900; but since then most plant breeders have followed the 

 evidence of the unaided eye, and failed to look below the surface when pronouncing 

 on the dominance or lack of dominance of any character. "The xylem of the root 

 of the radish by kohlrabi hybrid illustrates this ; the central part of this root when 

 examined macroscopically appears to be dense wood, as dense as the wood of the 

 central part of the root of the kohlrabi parent, but if this xylem is examined micro- 

 scopically it is found to have a considerably larger per cent, of thin- walled, unligni- 

 fied cells, thus presenting a structure intermediate between the two parents." It 

 may be added that this work, reported in Technical Bulletin No. 3 of the Miss- 

 issippi station, was actually performed in the laboratories of Cornell University by 

 Harry B. Brown. 



More Profit from Grains 



Tests of wheat and oat varieties are an important part of the Indiana Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station's work. The latter study has been carried on for 

 ten years, and the average yield of the ten highest varieties has been computed as 

 12.3 bushels more per acre than the average of the ten lowest varieties. This 

 difference, as the station is busy pointing out to the farmers, is sufficient to pay 

 for nearly one-half the cost of producing the crop. 



