i;xpe;rimi;nts in bre;e;ding svv^e;i:t corn. 307 



the farm distribution test last year, in respect to this matter of 

 local adjustment. In several localities where last year the Type 

 I corn from the Station was nearly a complete failure, and much 

 inferior to the facory seed, it is this year doing very well. The 

 apparent loss of earliness and fine quality (due to "new place 

 effect") is clearly seen not to have been a real loss at all, but 

 merely an expression of lack of local adjustment. Thus it 

 results that while in 1908 it was not possible to find anywhere 

 in the State corn as early as the Type I at Farmington, such is 

 not the case in 1910. Other plots of the Station Type I corn 

 in other parts of the State where selection of a kind which 

 amounted to selection for local adjustment was practiced last 

 year, are this year nearly or quite as early as that at Farming- 

 ton. Altogether our results clearly indicate that the local ad- 

 justment factor cannot be neglected in corn breeding work, 

 whether one is concerned with practical results or scientific 

 analysis. 



12. Experimental plots designed to test the effect of com- 

 mercial fertiliz'er, in addition to manure, upon yield and earliness 

 showed an increased yield of 21 bushels of dry seed per acre 

 in favor of the fertilized plot. On the fertilized plot there was 

 less corn on nubbins and the remaining ears were of better 

 quality. There was no effect on the earliness of maturity. 

 Both plots were ready for harvest at the same time. 



13. Random samples of seed from the earliest and from the 

 latest rows in 1908 were planted in 1-6 acre plots in 1909. Both 

 plots matured very early and at practically the same time. 

 There was a very slight difference in favor of the seed from the 

 earliest row. This difference was nothing approaching in 

 amount what it might reasonably be expected to be if the 

 piimary factor concerned in earliness of maturity in this plant 

 were definitely inherited. 



14. No attempt is made at present to discuss the biological 

 basis of the improvement in earliness observed to follow selec- 

 tion for that character in these experiments. We are inclined 

 to the belief that much, if not all, of this improvement is in 

 reality a physiological rather than a genetic or hereditary 

 phenomenon. The whole subject of breeding for earliness is 

 one which needs more critical discussion and experimentation 

 than has hitherto been given it. 



