No. 4.] CROSSING OF PLANTS. 55 



as could be. I had strong stalks and weak stalks from 

 kernels at the butt, and I had strong stalks from small ker- 

 nels and weak ones from large kernels. Indeed, the diversity 

 was most troublesome. That individual equation is a great 

 mystery to me. 



Mr. Lyxde. I would like to ask the professor if the 

 nourishment which nourishes the stem until it forms the leaf 

 is not stored within the kernel of corn until the leaf is formed ? 

 If that is so, then the small kernel at the tip of the corn 

 could not have as much nourishment as the large kernel in 

 the centre. Now, I want to know why that small kernel 

 should produce just as vigorous a stalk as a kernel in the 

 centre. 



Governor Hoard. I would just add one word. You may 

 figure upon nourishment as much as you please, but, after 

 all, you must be amenable to the law of heredity. The 

 professor gave you one little point there, and that was, that 

 virility was never indicated by size. I served in the army 

 alongside of a little man who could out-march me, out-pack 

 me and out-fight me, and get out of the way sometimes 

 faster than I could. I have observed that the power of 

 virility is the same in men as it is in horses, in dogs and in 

 plants. The question of nourishment as indicated by size is 

 no indication of the innate strength stored up resulting from 

 inherited vigor. 



T. S. Gold (secretary of the Connecticut Board of Agri- 

 culture). I have tried experiments similar to the one 

 described by Governor Hoard. I was taught to shell off the 

 kernels from the butt and the tip of the ear, to reject those 

 from the butt and the tip, and plant only the kernels from 

 the central, sound part of the ear. But afterwards I heard 

 that if we wanted long ears we must plant the kernels that 

 grow at the tip. I have repeatedly taken an ear of corn, 

 as Governor Hoard did, and planted it hill by hill, beginning 

 at the tip and going through to the butt of the ear. And I 

 have never been able to discover any difference in the result. 

 There has been more or less variation, but the kernels from 

 the butt, the tip and the central part (three or four kernels 

 being put in a hill) have come along with the same degree 

 of vigor. They were put in large and small, beginning at 



