AMERICAN BREEDERS ASSOCIATION 



55 



My farmer friends, especially here in the heart of the corn country, 

 will not be greatly impressed with these yields of 7578 bushels per 

 acre, but I must call attention to the facts that the light gravelly soil 

 of Long Island bears a very unfavorable comparison with Mississippi 

 valley alluvium for the production of Indian corn, and further that the 

 summer of 1908 was notable for one of the longest periods without 

 rain that has ever been experienced there. The important point will 



FIG. 2. TYPICAL EARS OF STRAIN A (AT RIGHT) AND STRAIN B (LEFT) AND OF 

 THEIR RECIPROCAL HYBRIDS. EACH HYBRID STANDS NEAREST ITS MOTHER- 

 STRAIN. 



not be missed however that the crosses between two self-fertilized 

 strains yielded a little more grain than those strains which had been 

 kept carefully cross-fertilized by hand. To be sure, the difference is 

 not great enough to seem of any particular significance in itself, but 

 it must be remembered that the two self-fertilized strains, A and B, 

 have been essentially unselected. being simply those two strains which 

 have first approached the pure homozygous state as a result of self- 

 fertilization. It is scarcely conceivable that other pure strains crossed 



