FROM GRAIN TO EAR. 85 



Dr. Wakefield. I think President ChadI)ourne can shed 

 some light on this subject. I wish he would state some facts 

 which he has in his possession. 



President Ciiadbourne. I think the Secretary of the 

 Board will remember that some years ago when he was 

 lecturing on horses, I lectured on the crossing of corn, and 

 he complimented me by saying that my lecture on corn threw 

 great light on the crossing of horses. With regard to this 

 red corn, and the peculiarity of it in its tenacity in holding 

 that particular color, will state an experiment that I. made. 

 My attention was first attracted by the fact that I found red 

 and white ears growing in some pop-corn that my boy 

 planted in the garden ; — all the red ears, as my friend here 

 says, perfectly red, and all the white ears perfectly white. 

 I selected with my own hands a red and a white ear. I 

 planted them the next year in different portions of a field by 

 themselves. The corn from the perfectly white seed was 

 two-thirds of it perfectly white and about one-third black, or 

 deep red, with no mixture whatever, and the corn from the 

 ear which w\as perfectly red, a large portion of it, was 

 red, and the rest of it white ; not a particle of mixture 

 in it ; just as distinct as anything could be. But now the 

 curious fact is this ; that near that red corn which I planted 

 grew some sweet corn. I don't say that it was affected 

 by the sweet corn, but when I planted that corn the next 

 year I planted it with my own hands, and there was no 

 appearance of its being mixed with this crossing I have 

 spoken of. About half of the crop from that corn, when it 

 grew, showed the marks of sweet corn all up and down the 

 whole ear ; not particuhir kernels, but th^ whole ear was 

 affected, had the form of the sweet corn, although the kernels 

 were black. I never su^pected there had been any crossing 

 until I planted the corn the second year, and the second year 

 1 should have taken the ears for perfect ears of the common 

 rice corn, but it had the distinct outline of the sweet corn 

 which had come from the pollen that was fastened upon it the 

 year before. But it remained of a black color. That is the 

 peculiarity, and you will see it in the stalk; clear from the 

 roots to the top you will see black lines running through it. 

 That peculiarity I cannot account for. But it is a remark- 



