298 



KLKMKNTS OF (JKXKHAL SCIKN'CK 



TEN GENERATIONS OF CORN WHICH WAS BRED FOR INCREASE 

 AND DECREASE OF PROTEIN l 



For the manufacture of corn oil it is desirable to secure 

 varieties of corn having a large proportion of oil. In the table 

 on page 299 it will be possible to note the gradual separation 

 of two races of corn which differ greatly in the proportion of 

 oil present, though all have descended from the same original 

 lot of corn. The figures at the top and in the margins repre- 

 sent percentages of oil ; the figures in the body of the table 

 indicate the number of ears of the indicated composition. 



It is likely that if all these samples of ears of corn had been 

 left to grow side by side, no such differentiation of the two 

 races would have developed. They have been separated from 

 one another only by selection and perpetuation of the desired 

 types and by elimination of the others. 



325. The weakness of the artificially selected types. The 

 plants and animals that have been developed by man artifi- 

 cially could not persist long in their present form if removed 

 from the care of man. A corn field, if left from year to year, 



1 Bulletin 128, 111. Agr. Ex. Sta., 1908. 



