.568 



The Journal of Heredity 



tomentum. This seems to protect the 

 young leaves while still inrolled in the 

 apex of the growing stalk from the 

 attacks of numerous small insects, 

 which are always seen working about 

 them. It is apparently the attacks of 

 these insects that ijrevent the successful 

 cultivation of smooth leaved northern 

 types of corn in Cuba. The heavy 

 husks, which serve to protect the ears 

 from the attacks of the corn weevil, are 

 doubtless the result of unconscious 

 selection, since under the conditions 

 which exist in Cuba only the ears 

 which are so protected can be success- 

 fully kept from the time they are 

 harvested until the next ]Dlanting season. 

 Large quantities of dent corn are 

 annually imported into Cuba from the 

 United States and from Argentina. 

 Some of this has occasionally been 

 |)lanted and has developed sufhciently 

 to produce pollen, ears of native corn 

 occasionally being found which show 

 more or less evidence of having been 

 fertilized by dent pollen. The problem 

 now is to select the best of these acclima- 

 tized crosses and breed from them in 

 the hope of fixing a type which will 

 combine the long ears and deep kernels 



of the dent type with the heavy husk 

 of the native flint. This work was 

 commenced at the Estacion Experi- 

 mental Agronomica, thirty of the best 

 obtainable ears being selected and 

 planted in different rows. The plants 

 in each row, i.e., those from a single 

 ear, were fairly uniform in character, 

 but among the different rows there was 

 a most interesting diversity in vigor 

 and height of stalk, productiveness, 

 shape and size of ears, and in time of 

 maturing. 



The future of Cuban plant breeding 

 cannot fail to be of interest. In few 

 trojiical countries are the o]:)portunities 

 more numerous and the conditions more 

 favorable. That the Cubans themselves 

 are awakening to the value of this work 

 is demonstrated by the increasing 

 amount of attention being devoted to it 

 at the Estacion Experimental Agronom- 

 ica under the present administration,'' 

 and it is to be hoped that a great deal 

 will be done by the planters themselves, 

 some of whom are in a position to 

 accomplish important results with the 

 expenditure of very little time and 

 energy, because of the wealth of 

 material which exists all about them. 



^ The Cuban Secretary of Agriculture has recently had a report made on the importance of 

 plant breeding, which it is hoped will lead to the commencement of extensive projects. In this 

 report, v.Titten by Armando Lora, the estalilishment of a new station for plant lirecding alone 

 is urged. 



Genetic Study of Apples 



Apple breeding was begun at the New York experiment station (Geneva) in 

 1898-99 ; 148 .seedlings of the crosses then made have fruited and have been described 

 in Bulletin 350 of this station. With the exception of these, work with apples is 

 still in an early stage, but further results are soon to be expected, as 1,200 seedlings 

 are now ready to fruit. In addition to these about 2,500 seedlings will Ijc planted 

 in experimental orchards in the next two years. It is hoped that this number of 

 seedlings will enaljle the investigators to analyze the genetic characters of the 

 parents which have been used. Self-seedlings, because of lack of \ngor, have not 

 proved desirable from a horticultural standpoint and since so much time and 

 effort is involved in the growing of apple seedlings, it has not seemed desirable 

 to use selfing as a means of studying the parents. The data from these seedlings 

 should throw light on the inheritance of skin and flesh color, form and size of 

 fruit, season of ripening and (jiiality. 



