106 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 
Then measure each ear and record it opposite the figure in 
the scheme that comes xzearest to the correct measure of the 
ear. When all the ears have been measured and the lengths 
recorded, you will have results similar to these of the follow- 
ing table, which is an actual case taken from a field of Reed’s 
Yellow Dent, crop of 1906. 
By this we see that in all 286 ears were 
DISTRIBUTION AS TO 
measured ; that our scale was longer 
LENGTH 
than it needed to be, for no ear was 
i # found as short as 4 inches or as long as 
im 12 inches; that one ear was 5 inches 
dts long, four were 54 inches long, etc. ; and 
5.0 x that the number gradually rises to 59 and 
. then as gradually declines, so that ex- 
6.5 7 tremes of length are represented by rela- 
7.0 19 tively few ears. 
7-5 3 Types. We are ready now to arrive at 
ies = a rational conception of type. The most 
9.0 6 common length of ear is not § inches nor 
9.5 39 is it 10 inches, but it is 84 inches, because 
10.0 = 59 out of 286 ears were nearer that length 
Ne a than any other. This is therefore the most 
11.5 ' usual, or, as we say, the typical length. 
12.0 _ This is not saying that it is the most de- 
286 sirable length, but that it is the length 
most commonly found.! Such a value is 
called the mode, and we say that 8.5 inches is the mode of 
this corn as to length, 
Plotting the frequency curve. Such a lot of measurements 
is technically called a ‘‘ frequency distribution” or, more briefly, 
a “distribution.” It is always indicated by the letter f, as is 
the scheme of values by the letter 7 
1 That is, a blindfolded man drawing ears at random would draw this length 
oftener than any other; or if one’s life depended upona single draw, he would 
stand more chances by drawing this than any other length. 
