No. 4.] CROSSING OF PLANTS. 61 



the grower has had upon them recently. By far the greater 

 part of those inherited impulses which generally determine 

 the type and character of a plant have had their foundations 

 in the immemorial past. Those foundations were laid gen- 

 erations, perhaps thousands of years, ago. Any change 

 which we can produce by any methods of culture which we 

 can apply to it is only a small part of what has been done by 

 nature in this long history. If we would breed any animal 

 or plant, we must remember that the share which we can 

 have in its ancestry as compared with the total of its 

 ancestry is extremely small. Therefore it is that we have 

 such difficulty in breeding things away from their ancient 

 standard ; and therefore we may believe that what little dif- 

 ferences we can make here and there in taking seed from 

 one part of the car or the other must have but a very small 

 bearing in determining the condition of the crop. You see 

 it in our own race. A man is determined somewhat by his 

 own character, but the more essential features which make 

 him a man are the properties of his race, are the properties 

 of his species, are common to mankind. They have been 

 in-bred from a practically inconceivable past. 



Mr. Lynde. Is not the necessary corollary from your 

 theory, Governor Hoard, that, if a man should raise his seed 

 corn in hills having only one stalk, and separate it from his 

 other corn in some way, its character would be just what he 

 would ask? 



Governor Hoard. It might, if it were not for the fact 

 that where corn is allowed to grow three stalks in a hill w r e 

 see the same variation in the character of the stalk. 



Mr. Lynde. Would not the conditions of growth under 

 such circumstances develop a better seed, with more virility, 

 more power to impress itself upon the resultant crop, than 

 if raised in any other way ? 



Governor Hoard. I think it is preferable to plant corn in 

 rows, dropping one kernel in a place. I find it so in Wiscon- 

 sin. Drop the seed eight or ten inches apart. Be governed 

 by the character of your soil. If your soil is light and weak, 

 drop it farther apart ; if your soil is strong, drop it closer, 

 but never less than eight or ten inches apart. In that way I 

 think you will get a larger and better crop than where you 

 plant it in hills and crowd the stalks together. 



