$1000 for Data on Heredity 69 
leading from that common ancestor to 
the higher apes than in the lines leading 
to the lower monkeys. It would be 
interesting to have some one go through 
the different species of active animals in 
this way and then explain what selec- 
tion had to do with the evolution of 
higher forms of animals from lower ones. 
‘‘Based on laws well known to science 
there is a hypothesis that the universe 
is a system running down. It would be 
interesting to have some one take these 
laws as a basis and then explain how 
there can be an evolutien (increase) of 
animal powers by mutations. 
"aaligh speed. at, the trot is: not.«<a 
natural gait for horses. It is an arti- 
ficial gait which never existed in any 
breed of horses until forced there by 
the art of man during the past century. 
At the beginning of that period running 
was the only high-speed gait, and horses 
would break into a run when forced for 
speed. Now we have natural trotters 
which will stick to the trot no matter 
how hard they are forced, and the trot- 
ting speed approaches the running 
speed. The most successful trotting 
lines are through those animals which 
were worked hard at the trot, were 
seldom bred, and had few generations 
to the century. Opportunity for selec- 
tion was reduced to nearly its lowest 
limit in the most successful trotting 
lines. What theory other than the 
inheritance of acquired characters will 
account for this new thing found in the 
‘born trotter’ of today? 
“CASPER L. REDFIELD.” 
Any one who desires to investigate 
one of these points and wishes more 
information as to the method of pro- 
cedure, may write to the editor of the 
JOURNAL OF HEREDITY, or directly to 
Mr. Redfield, whose office is in the Mon- 
adnock Block, Chicago, Ill. Dynamic 
Evolution may be considered as an 
authority on the meaning of any point 
in the offer. It contains a bibliography 
of previously published articles, to which 
reference may be made for details in 
case any point appears obscure. 
Hardy Grains for the North 
At the Rampart Experiment Station in Alaska, Agent C. C. Georgeson writes, 
“We have made many crosses of barleys in order to produce an early beardless 
variety which shall, at the same time, have a good head and a stiff straw, so it can 
stand the storms. To this end many and divers varieties have been crossed, and 
we have results which show a very large variation in the offspring. The plan has 
been to use the beardless—and, in some cases, both beardless and hulless—variety 
for the mother plant. This has been pollinated with early varieties of barley 
which have been mostly bearded, some of them six-rowed like the mother plant, 
and others two-rowed. We have not yet had time to establish a stable variety. 
Up to the present, the crosses have split up into a large number of widely divergent 
forms; thus, for instance, the one and two-rowed black, bearded barley, which 
was reasonably early, but whose chief merit was that it had a stiff straw and did 
not lodge badly, has been used for the male parent. The offspring has varied in a 
most astonishing manner. In most cases the beards have been eliminated, and 
instead of bristles 4 inches long, sharply barbed, many of the offspring have 
had abbreviated awns from one-half inch to an inch in length, and terminating in a 
hood. In color, they have varied from pure white to pure black, through many 
intermediate shades of yellow and purple. Some have been two-rowed, others 
six-rowed; some of them have been white or yellow two-rowed beardless, others 
have been six-rowed and bearded. The work is continued.” 
