SOME EXPERIMENTAL FOODS 237 



of those now in use we must depend upon the practical 

 scientists who are engaged in plant breeding. The work of 

 one of these, Professor Buffum, has been accomplished in a 

 region that is apparently sterile and where plants grow 

 only by coaxing through artificial moisture. 



His plant-breeding farms near Worland in the Big Horn 

 Basin of Northern Wyoming lie at an elevation of 4000 

 feet, in a region of almost total natural aridity. 



After twenty years' work in Western agricultural colleges 

 and Government Experiment Stations, Professor Buffum 

 chose his present location because nowhere in the United 

 States could he find conditions of soil and climate that induce 

 to such a remarkable degree the breaking up of species, and 

 mutation or "sporting" of plants. 



When the modern plant breeder seeks to produce some- 

 thing new by cross-fertilization a problem is encountered. 

 For many years we were ignorant of the principle upon which 

 nature operated in these hybrids or crosses. Finally a 

 Bohemian priest named Mendel discovered the law. The 

 central principle is that when the seed produced from a 

 cross between two different species is planted, the progeny 

 breaks up into well-defined groups. A certain percentage 

 of the plants resemble one of the parents, a smaller per- 

 centage are like the other parent, and the rest seem to be a 

 blend of both parents. These intermediates will not breed 

 true to themselves, however; if seed from them is planted 

 the progeny will split up into groups, showing the same 

 percentages as the first generation to which they belonged. 

 This has been generally accepted by scientists. 



In many of his productions Professor Buffum apparently 

 has set the Mendelian law at defiance, for, by cross-fertiliza- 

 tion, he has evolved plants which breed true to themselves, 



