Blakeslee: Corn and Education 



55 



"acquired characters," in corn or in men, 

 cannot be biologically transmitted to 

 succeeding generations. 



But has education, it will be asked, no 

 indirect influence in producing a better 

 or a worse race of individual men? The 

 question is one of relative rates of rej)ro- 

 duction. Does education increase or de- 

 crease the number of individuals with 

 desirable or undesirable traits? Only 

 as it does increase or decrease such 

 types of individuals can it be said to 

 have any influence, good or bad, upon 

 the biologic evolution of the human race. 



In the cultivation of corn may be seen 

 at work forces similar to those acting in 

 the education of men. Farmers for- 

 merly mixed a small quantity of a red 

 \'ariety in their sowings of corn to 

 heighten interest at the old-fashioned 

 husking bees. Such a sowing would 

 13roduce what is technically known to 

 Ijreeders as a mixed population. The 

 plants with red ears would be rare — 

 would form only a small proportion of 

 the total population in the field. This 

 proportion could be increased or de- 

 creased in succeeding generations by 

 conscious selection by the farmer of a 

 larger or smaller ninnber of red ears 

 for planting. Such selection might 

 be dictated to him by economic con- 

 siderations. On the other hand, if 

 the corn were shelled and a definite 

 quantity of this mixed seed were sown 

 each year, the proportion of plants 

 with red ears in the field in succeeding 

 generations would depend upon the 

 relative rates of reproduction of the 

 two varieties of corn. If the red variety 

 were more prolific, the proportion 

 would increase and the red corn in 

 succeeding generations would eventually 

 supplant the other variety; while if its 

 rate of reproduction were less than that 

 of the other, it would in time disappear 

 from the farmer's field. Which of the 

 two varieties would show the greater 

 rate of reproduction might depend 

 upon environmental factors such as 

 climate and character of soil where 



HEREDITY UNCHANGEABLE 



This red ear is unchanged by hght or dark- 

 ness, and the red exterior does not tell whether 

 the kernel underneath is yellow or white. Photo, 

 slightly reduced, by J. H. Paine. (Fig. 3.) 



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 mr ^ ^ 



