EXPERIMENTS IN BREEDING SWEET CORN. 29I 



complete failure. It was very uneven and irregular in its 

 growth throughout the season. It showed the "diversity" 

 which Cook emphasizes in the case of cotton in a new locality. 

 It was much later than the Martin seed. This contrast between 

 the locally adjusted and the newly imported seed was noted not 

 only in the case of the corn on the Martin farm, but also in the 

 case of two other plots in the same region (about Rumford). 



The converse case to that just cited is illustrated by the con- 

 dition at Farmington. There our Type I seed is locally well 

 adjusted seed, whereas the factory seed is the imported. The 

 superiority in all points of corn from our seed as grown at 

 Farmington over corn from factory seed was beyond question, 

 and admitted by all familiar with the corn in that region. 



Another opportunity to observe the effect of this factor was 

 given by the experiments with the Type II corn. The field 

 selections of this corn in 1907 were made in Newport and Dexter. 

 In 1908 the selected seed was planted at Farmington. The ex- 

 perimental plot of this corn was (a) much inferior to the Type 



I plot; (b) it was much more uneven and irregular in respect 

 to all characters (i. e., showed greater "diversity" in the sense 

 of Cook) than did the locally adjusted Type I on the one hand, 

 or than the equally but differently locally adjusted Type II at 

 Newport and Dexter on the other hand. These facts are readily 

 interpreted on the local adjustment idea. One further point is 

 of interest here. In the 1909 farm distribution test, plots of 

 both Type I and Type II seed were planted at or near Newport 

 and Dexter. While all did very well, the Type II seed clearly 

 gave better results here than the Type I. Further the Type II 

 seed gave much better results than it did the year before at 

 Farmington. The suggestion at once comes to one's mind that 

 these results are possibly due to the circumstance that the Type 



II seed in 1909 was brought back again in these cases to the 

 locality to which it was "by nature" adjusted, whereas the Type 

 I seed \^'as here in a "new place." Such an interpretation, if 

 true, would clear up at once the apparent paradox of a distinctly 

 superior strain (as our Type I unquestionablv is in general. as 

 conipared with Type II) giving worse results than an inferior 

 strain under the same environmental conditions. 



The point made by Cook that increased "diversity" very fre- 

 quently follows the introduction of seed into a new locality finds 



