PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 117 



one. Until this is done breeders must continue to proceed 

 in the same haphazard manner that they have followed for 

 countless generations. 



By selecting the largest and most perfect ears of seed 

 corn from the variations present in the field, conversely 

 eliminating the remainder from reproducing, the corn 

 grower plants with a fatuous trust in providence that a crop 

 somewhat better or at least as good as the preceding crop 

 will be produced. If it is a type comparatively pure the 

 average may be maintained and the hope partially realized, 

 but the chances for retrogression are far greater than for 

 advancement inasmuch as there is no means for distinguish- 

 ing a variation that will be transmitted with equal or 

 better results than in the preceding generation, from one 

 presenting a fluctuation due to nature and which is 

 non-transmissible. Thus the apparently inferior ear of 

 corn will frequently produce a yield far better than obtained 

 from one which is perfection as graded by the methods of 

 the "corn show," and, if from the same pure race, the 

 resultant crop will be at least as good. Artificial methods 

 of hybridization which furnish an immediate advancement 

 in the succeeding generation result in a gain only tem- 

 porary. The increased stimulus to growth vanishes as 

 a fluctuation. 



Thus it is quite evident that there exists a problem in 

 the evolutionary control of organisms even the partial solu- 

 tion of which will mark an extraordinary advancement not 

 only for agriculture, horticulture, and animal breeding, but 

 also for society in general. 



The general results of the investigations bearing upon 

 the evolutionary control of organisms may be grouped 

 around the principles of Mendelism, the Mutation Theory, 

 and Pure Line Breeding. 



The rediscovery in 1900 of the fundamental laws gov- 

 erning hybridization so brilliantly established by Mendel in 

 1865, but unfortunately concealed in the obscure publica- 

 tions of the Natural History Society of Brunn, opened an 



