528 The Journal of Heredity 



of hybridizing varieties of diverse char- A number of promising strains of 



acters and observing the resulting wheat and oats have been isolated at 



Mendelian phenomena. Hundreds of the same station, and it is hoped that 



separate independently transmissible they will soon be ready to appear in the 



characters are being observed and the trade. It is calculated that eight vears, 



study of them is leadmg to a knowledge ^^ the average, are required to multiply 



of some highly important principles, and test a new strain of cereal sufficiently 



For example several detrimental char- ^^ estabHsh it, if it is worthv. 

 acters such as partial or comp ete lack ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^^^ .^ ^^_ 



of chlorophvl, barrenness, sterility, and ,. -^ . • , r • nr • 



others which mav have a more or less "^ y ""T v^ '"l ! 



direct practical bearing upon vield, are because of its use m crop rotation, is 



included in this studv of unit characters. S^ttrng a good deal of attention, and 



"This same kind of analytical study is appears to be particularly responsive 



being extended to several of our other to selection, which is directed m two 



field crops such as wheat, oats, clover, different lines: to make beans valuable 



alfalfa, soy beans, millet, broomcorn, for oil production, and to improve them 



sorghum, and sweet clover." for human food. 



Some Apple Statistics 



Variation in apples has been investigated at the Massachusetts agricultural 

 experiment station, the entire crops borne by certain Baldwin and Ben Davis 

 trees being measured for six successive years. As expected, a great difference was 

 found in the productivity of different trees, and a slight difference in the amount of 

 variability. It is possible that the larger the apples a tree bears, the more variable 

 they arc. The apples from the upper south parts of the trees, which were largest, 

 were also the most flattened, and there is found to be a pretty constant relationship 

 between the form of the apple and the temperature for a period of several weeks 

 following the bloom; the cooler this period, the more elongated the apple. The 

 station now has MendeHan experiments under way with peas, beans and squashes, 

 and has made much progress in breeding rust-proof asparagtis, in cooperation with 

 the federal department of agriculture. The garden pea study has shown that the 

 ordinary commercial varieties are composed of many different strains or pure lines; 

 work is now being carried on to determine whether selection within the pure line 

 can increase or decrease vine length, and to determine the degree of correlation 

 between weight of seed and length of vine. The study of the squash has also shown 

 the common varieties to be of heterogeneous composition and the particular point 

 now under investigation is to determine whether homozygous races may be isolated. 

 The study of the inheritance of ]jigmentation and other characters in garden l:)cans 

 during the last six years has embraced more than 100 crosses of sixteen varieties, 

 and included more than 50,000 ])lants, all of which ha\'e been carefully studied and 

 tabulated. 



Inheritance of Bad Temper 



In Bulletin No, 12, I, of the Eugenics Record Office (Cold Spring Harbor, L. I., 

 September, 1915), Dr. C. B. Davenport presents a study of the family history of 

 165 wayward girls, with a view to determining the heritability of violent temper. 

 He concludes that "The tendency to outbursts of temi)cr — 'tantrums' in adults — 

 whether more or less j)eriodic or irregular and whether associated with c])ilepsy, 

 hysteria or mania, or not, is inherited as a po.sitive (dominant) trait, typically does 

 not skip a generation and tends, ordinarily, to reappear, on the average, in half of 

 the children of an affected parent." 



