268 



The Journal of Heredity 



The importance of the unconscious 

 pioneer agricultural work of the Indian 

 has not been adequately ai)prcciated. 

 Many of the agricultural requirements 

 of maize laboriously ascertained by 

 experiment might have been learned 

 from a study of the agricultural prac- 

 tices of the Indian. 



The agricultural Indians of the South- 

 west have continued, from jjrehistoric 

 times, to grow maize successfully in 

 regions where drought, and especially 

 the absence of spring rains, make the 

 growing of the common varieties impos- 

 sible. A study of the varieties grown 

 by the Hopi and other agricultural 

 Indians shows that these varieties 

 possess two special adaptations: (1) A 

 greatly elongated mesocotyl that per- 

 mits deep ])lanting and (2) the develop- 

 ment of a single large radicle that rapidly 

 descends to the moist subsoil and supplies 



water during the critical seedling stage. 



This indigenous type of maize seems 

 to have attracted little attention, per- 

 haps because it has been included in 

 the popular mind with a series of 

 inferior varieties commonly known as 

 "squaw corn." But the Pueblo Indians 

 of Arizona and New Mexico have 

 strains suflTiciently productive to com- 

 pare favorably with improved varieties 

 even when grown tmdcr irrigation. The 

 peculiar adajjtations of this type defi- 

 nitely indicate its value for the semi- 

 arid regions, and warrant experiments 

 to determine the possibility of its utili- 

 zation. 



It is belie\'ed that a canvass of the 

 varieties of maize grown by the Indians 

 and a careful study of the agricultural 

 practices of the different tribes will dis- 

 close much of interest and value to 

 American agricultvire. 



The First and Last Child 



With a view to throwing light on the question whether the first-born children, 

 or the last-born children in large families, are inferior in vitality to the rest of their 

 fraternity, Dr. Alfred Ploetz of Munich, Germany, compiled the returns from a 

 large numVjcr of families of the nobility, and published them in the Archiv fiir 

 Rassen und Gesellsehafts-Biologic (VIII, 761). He does not interpret his figures, 

 but they seem to show very little diiTerence in the viability of children in a family, 

 with regard to their order of birth. 



He grouped all the first-born children together, all the second-Vjorn children 

 together, and so on, and then found how many of them had died before the fifth 

 year of life. The results, so grouped, are as follows: 



Order of Birth 



Number of 

 Children 

 IncUided 



First-born children 



Sc'cond-born children 



'l"hird-l)C)rn children 



Fourlh-horn children 



Fiflh-horn children 



Sixth-born children 



Seventh- to ninth-born children. . . . 

 Tenth- to nineteenth-born children 



Totals 



Per Cent. 

 That Died 



3319 



26.7 



