432 NEW JEESEY AGEICULTURAL COLLEGE 



a white ''Mexican,'' so far as the ear is concerned, can be procured, 

 with all the sweetness of the famous dark variety, without its chief 

 ol)jection, namely, the black color, 



" Gentleman " npon " Mexican '^ (Black Seed Grains). 



In the lower left-hand corner of Plate I. is shown a set of six ears 

 selected from the crop resulting from the planting of the dark grains' 



19 



"Gentleman" upon ''Mexican ' (-99) of the previous year. The half- 



bushel and more of ears are quite uniform, all having the black pre- 

 dominating and all adhering quite closely to the ''Mexican"' type — 

 that is, there were no ears that had the grains placed zigzag, as in the 

 "Gentleman." It is worthy of remark that the "Mexican" has im- 

 pressed itself so thoroughly upon the cross, and were it not for the 

 large, stout ear, with usually ten to twelve rows, and, of course, the 

 many white grains, there would be ver\- little to suggest the "Gentle- 

 man" parent. 



It may be well to dwell for a moment upon the history of the black 

 grains that have given this season the ears that are in question. In 

 1903 white grains were obtained upon "Mexican" ears that were grown 

 close to the "Grentleman." Ears with these white grains are shown 

 in Plate II. of the report for 1903. These white grains, when grown 

 in a block by themselves, gave ears last year that were nearly solid 

 white, as shown in Plate I. of the report for 1904. It is these dark 

 grains that have produced the ears in question. It is possible that 

 the dark grains of a year ago were from "Mexican" pollen outside 

 of the block — that is, from the block planted with dark "Mexican- 

 Gentleman" grains — and that the result of the present season is one of 

 a secondary cross and might be expected to give ears with three- 

 fourths of black grains. A count of ten typical ears shows the num- 

 ber of the two colors of grains as follows : Black, 2,398 : white, 

 1,098 — or 08.59 per cent, and 31.41 per cent., resi^ectively. It seems 

 evident tbat there was white "blood" in the dark grains used for seed. 



