PREFACE Vll 



year, 1883, page 206, Professor Goff records an obser- 

 vation of the fact of dominance and recessiveness in 

 certain characters of the common garden pea, although 

 he did not know Mendel's discovery. This was seven- 

 teen years before the rediscovery of Mendel's Law by 

 de Vries, Tschermak, and Correns. After mentioning 

 the cross fertilization of several different varieties of 

 peas in 1882, he states : 'The seeds resulting from these 

 crosses, which were planted May 12, [1883] vegetated 

 rather poorly, but the plants were all vigorous, and a 

 few of them were very prolific, the largest yield from 

 one plant being sixty-one pods. We noted that in 

 crossing wrinkled with smooth varieties, peas of both 

 sorts were mixed indiscriminately in the pods, while 

 the pods themselves were of the type of either parent, 

 or were sometimes intermediate in form ; but in cross- 

 ing the common varieties upon the sugar-pea, the peas 

 of the two types were in no case mixed in the pods. 

 The pods were always of the type of the common pea, 

 though on certain plants all of the peas that they in- 

 closed were of the sugar type.' ' 



At the University of Wisconsin his work was success- 

 ful and well appreciated. For this preface, Dr. W. A. 

 Henry, formerly Dean of the College of Agriculture 

 there and now Professor Emeritus, makes the following 

 appreciative statement : " Professor Goff held no college 

 diploma, but he was a trained scientist nevertheless, 

 and a gentleman of the highest type. He combined 

 the qualities of a real investigator with those of a 

 delightful teacher. He was loved by all. He grew 

 into his strength under the guidance of Sturtevant at 

 the New York [Geneva] Experiment Station in inti- 

 mate association with Babcock, Ladd, Plumb, and other 

 worthy associates. Following Babcock to Wisconsin, 



