No. 4.] CROSSING OF PLANTS. 57 



result. It had never occurred to me that the good ears always 

 grow upon a large stalk ; but there may be more in Governor 

 Hoard's theory than I suppose. But it is a fact which my 

 experience bears out that the kernels from the tip are essen- 

 tial for a successful crop. 



Professor Bailey. If we are going to make a success of 

 the business of growing corn or any other plant, we have 

 got to get variations for selection. We should not take 

 seeds from any particular part simply because we get a less 

 amount of variability. It is variability that we must have 

 first, in order to get some basis of selection for future prog- 

 ress. The first thing we should do to improve any species 

 of plant is to make it vary in some direction so as to break 

 its type ; and after the type is broken various varieties begin 

 to appear, and then we can select those individual variations 

 which arc best for our purposes. Now, it we take simply 

 the kernels in the middle of an ear, we get them very much 

 alike in their general character. If we take them from the 

 whole ear we have kernels fertilized at different times. 

 There are more variations than in those kernels that come 

 from the middle of the ear, and from that great variability 

 we can select those particular kinds which we wish to propa- 

 gate. 



I am glad that Governor Hoard has brought out a point 

 which I was going to emphasize a moment ago ; namely, 

 that the amount of nutrition is not the measure of the virility 

 of the embryo contained in the seed. Although as a rule the 

 more nutriment a seed has the stronger will be its character, 

 simply because it has been developed as a rule upon stronger 

 parents, still it does not follow that the amount of nutriment 

 in a seed is any measure of the strength of the resulting 

 plant. And yet there is always a greater chance of getting 

 more virile seed if we take that which is the largest. It is 

 so with garden seed. The best results come from those seeds 

 which arc largest, and especially if the plants which result 

 from them are allowed to struggle for themselves in the 

 garden, where the fittest will survive. I always make 

 experience the rule that guides me in my practice ; and 

 therefore, while I must say that the amount of nutritive 

 matter is no measure of virility, I must also say that we are 



