642 IMPROVEMENT OF LIVING THINGS BY MAN 



Achievement Test 



1. What scientific proof can you give that environment influences 

 organisms? 



2. What are some hereditary qualities? How are hereditary qual- 

 ities handed down? 



3. What is the purpose of reproduction in plants and animals? 



4. What are five plant or animal hybrids? 



5. How can you work out Mendel's laws with a hybrid? With a 

 di-hybrid? 



6. What are the chief problems in plant or animal breeding in 

 your community? 



7. What is the mechanism by which inheritable characters from 

 a father or mother are handed down, " even unto the third and fourth 

 generation "? 



8. How would you make a diagram of heredity in your own family, 

 going back as far as your parents can remember? Are there any 

 definite examples of heredity which come out in your generation (eye 

 color, hair texture, musical or other ability, etc.) ? 



9. Explain the meaning and the application of the word " eu- 

 genics. " 



Practical Problems 



1. Could living things improve physically or mentally if it were 

 not for heredity ? 



2. Go to a nearby nursery and find out how many of the newer 

 and better plants are raised through hybridization. 



3. To what extent do farmers in your locality use selection to 

 improve their crops? Get as many examples as you can. 



4. If there is an institution for feeble-minded or criminally insane in 

 your neighborhood, find out how many there are in the institution and 

 how much it costs the state per year to run the institution. What 

 does it cost your father a year in taxes? 



5. What institutions in your state are maintained because of poor 

 heredity? 



Useful References 



Atwood, A Civic and Economic Biology. (P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 

 1922.) 



Babcock and Clausen. Genetics in Relation to Agriculture. (McGraw- 

 Hill Book Co. 1927.) 



Conklin, Heredity and Environment. (Princeton University Press. 

 1923.) 



