332 LUTHER BURBANK 



More recent experiments have shown that 

 whiteness versus yellowness of kernel constitutes 

 a pair of hereditary characters, in which yellow- 

 ness is dominant. Similarly, starchiness versus 

 sweetness of kernel constitutes another pair of 

 characters, in which starchiness is dominant. 

 This being understood, we can predict with some 

 certainty what will occur when such a cross is 

 made as that of these early experiments in 

 hybridizing the field corn and the sweet corn. 



The crossbreds of the first generation will have 

 ears with yellow kernels that are all starchy like 

 the field corn kernels, because yellowness and 

 starchiness are dominant qualities. But the off- 

 spring of the second generation will show a cer- 

 tain proportion in which the recessive characters 

 of whiteness and of sweetness reappear. 



Thus in the second generation we shall have 

 yellow kernels that are starchy, and others that 

 are sweet, and white kernels also of both kinds. 



And the interest of the experiment is enhanced 

 by the fact that the kernels showing these differ- 

 ent characteristics are likely to be distributed on 

 the same ear. In many plant-breeding experi- 

 ments we have no tangible feature to guide us as 

 to the quality of the fruit. Some of the seeds of 

 a hybrid blackberry, for example, may bear fac- 

 tors for thornlessness, while others bear factors 



