LUTHER BURBANK 



I surmised that the corn was really a hybrid 

 between the common green-leaved dwarf corn and 

 the old Japanese variegated corn, sometimes 

 spoken of botanically as Zea mais variegata. The 

 fact that it was a hybrid stock gave the plant addi- 

 tional interest, however, and I determined to 

 experiment farther with it. 



The ears of corn themselves gave further 

 evidence of their crossbred origin. Some of them 

 were red both as to cob and kernel, and others 

 bore yellow kernels and white cobs. The stalks 

 varied in height from two and a half to six feet. 



The best plant of the lot was selected, and from 

 the three ears it bore I raised about six hundred 

 plants. 



About one-third of these hybrids of the second 

 generation resembled their parent plant in having 

 leaves striped in four colors. The rest reverted 

 to the form of their Japanese grand-parent; a 

 plant with variegated leaves that first came from 

 Japan, and which has been known in this country 

 for the past thirty years. 



From the best of the quadricolor stalks I took 

 suckers, and developed in this way a good-sized 

 patch of corn from cuttings, perhaps the first corn- 

 field ever raised by this method. All of these 

 suckers being from an original quadricolor plant, 

 of course reproduced the qualities of the parent 



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