Collins: Pueblo Indian Maize Breeding 



259 



stition, the methods employed are seen 

 to be admirably adapted to supply 

 fertility to the soil and to conserve 

 moisture, enabling these Indians to 

 produce maize under conditions that 

 prohibit the growing of this crop by the 

 methods ordinarily employed by whites. 

 The many incidental references to 

 peculiar agricultural practices in Mr. 

 Gushing 's articles suggest that careful 

 study of the agricultural practices of 

 the different Indian tribes might dis- 

 close many facts of economic impor- 

 tance to agriculture. The results des- 

 scribed in the present paper show one 

 such fact : that we must thank the Indian 

 for calling our attention to deep planting 

 as a factor in drought resistance and 

 for having developed a type of maize 

 with peculiar characteristics that per- 

 mit the utilization of this factor to an 

 extraordinary extent.^ 



valuable lore neglected. 



The development of maize as a culti- 

 vated plant must have involved a long 

 series of unconscious experiments which 

 resulted in important agricultural dis- 

 coveries. That the results of these 

 experiments are clothed in the language 

 of myths and legends should not obscure 

 the fact that in many instances they 

 reveal sound agricultural principles. 

 The study of this primitive agricultural 

 lore has too long been left to the eth- 

 nologist. We have accepted the Indian's 

 gift of maize but have hastened away 

 without stopping to learn its full value 

 or how best to utilize it. 



Had we taken the trouble to learn 

 and appreciate the Indian's discrimina- 

 tion in the choice of varieties, the 

 differences in flavor and adaptability to 

 different methods of cooking, we would 

 not have assumed this valuable himian 

 food to be useful chiefly for the nourish- 

 ment of our domestic animals. 



Indians of the Southwest have pre- 

 served from pre-Columbian times a 

 type of maize able to produce fair crops 

 in regions where the better-known 

 varieties of the East fail for lack of 

 sufficient water. An important factor 



^The description of the drought resisting adaptations of this type of maize has been pub- 

 lished in The Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. 1, No. 4, Dept. of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, January 10, 1914, where the subject is treated in a somewhat more botanical way. 



in the drought resistance of this type of 

 corn is its ability to force the grpwing 

 shoot of the seedling to the surface of 

 the soil when planted at a depth of a foot 

 or more. At such depths less specialized 

 varieties die before reaching the surface. 



The literature of corn contains reports 

 of many experiments conducted to 

 determine the proper depth of planting, 

 but the results are confusing and con- 

 tradictory. It has generally been 

 realized that the optimum depth is 

 influenced by differences in soil and cli- 

 mate, but that the proper depth might 

 vary with different varieties seems not 

 to have been appreciated. The varying 

 behavior of types when planted at 

 different depths is additional proof that 

 it is unsafe and unscientific to generalize 

 with respect to cultural factors without 

 taking type, varietal and even individual 

 differences into account. 



The primary root or radicle which is 

 the first organ to emerge from the 

 germinating seed is soon followed by the 

 shoot or plumule. Enclosing the shoot 

 is the cotyledonary sheath or coleoptyle, 

 a tubtilar organ which is closed and 

 pointed at the upper end. Between the 

 base of the coleoptyle and the seed, the 

 axis is somewhat elongated (see Fig. 5). 

 With seeds germinated in the laboratory 

 this elongation is so slight that it might 

 easily be overlooked. Nevertheless, 

 this small organ has not escaped the 

 notice of morphologists and its nature 

 has been the subject of much discussion. 

 It has been called variously hypocotyl, 

 mesocotyl and epicotyl. By some it 

 is held to be an internode, by others 

 merely an elongated node. 



HOW THE SHOOT REACHES DAYLIGHT. 



When a grain of corn germinates in 

 the ground this usually insignificant 

 organ is of vital importance to the 

 life of the plant, for it is through the 

 elongation of this mesocotyl that the 

 shoot is enabled to reach the surface. 



So long as a maize seedling remains 

 below ground away from light, the 

 mesocotyl will continue to elongate, 

 until it reaches a maximum length that 



