128  Pedigree  Seed  Corn. 
conditions  of  a locality  can  comparatively  soon  be  determined 
by  comparison  with  other  varieties  and  races  in  cultivation 
under  the  same  external  conditions. 
Transferred  to  another  environment  the  uniformity  will 
be  maintained,  although  the  comparative  yield  and  quality 
may  be  altered. 
Now  suppose  some  of  this  pure  race  to  be  taken  back  and 
seeded  in  its  original  habitat,  will  the  quality  and  yield  be 
different  from  that  obtained  from  seed  of  the  same  pure  race 
which  has  been  grown  there  continuously  ? 
A series  of  experiments  bearing  on  this  point  has  been 
made  by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  and 
the  results  were  recently  given  by  Dr.  Le  Clerc,  of  the  Bureau 
of  Vegetable  Physiology,  at  Washington,  in  a paper  to  the 
British  Association.  The  American  results  dealt  with  the  char- 
acters of  the  grain  only.  They  showed  that  no  difference  in 
quality  was  traceable  to  what  may  be  called  “ previous  place 
effects.”  That  is  to  say,  that  a series  of  plots  alongside,  seeded 
with  grain  all  of  the  same  original  race,  gave  crops  of  similar 
quality,  notwithstanding  that  the  seed  for  each  plot  was  grown 
the  previous  year  in  widely  different  localities,  and  was  of 
widely  different  quality  in  consequence.  The  “ quality  ” 
of  the  seed  (so  far  as  it  was  due  to  “place  effects”)  was  not 
transmitted.  Only  the  “ racial  ” characters  were  transmitted 
to  the  crop,  and  these  were  the  same  with  the  same  race 
wherever  the  seed  used  was  grown.  It  would  be  generally 
agreed  that  this  accords  with  the  general  experience  that 
within  a particular  race  “ quality  ” is  determined  by  the 
immediate  external  conditions.  I have  made  a series  of 
similar  experiments  on  a nursery  scale  at  Warminster,  and 
my  results  confirm  the  above  with  regard  to  quality. 
With  regard  to  “ yield,”  however,  I have  consistently  in 
three  following  years  found  with  one  particular  pure  race  of 
barley  (and  there  seems  no  reason  why  this  should  not  apply 
to  any  other  race)  significant  differences  in  yield  of  grain  due 
to  the  environment  in  which  the  seed  was  grown  the  previous 
year.  For  instance,  with  the  particular  pure  race  referred  to 
(raised  from  a single  plant  in  my  nursery  at  Warminster  in 
1902),  the  resulting  crop  was  heavier  after  the  seed  had  been 
transferred  to  and  grown  on  a strong  clay  loam,  than  after  it 
had  been  grown  on  a poor  chalk  marl,  when  both  were  brought 
back  to  the  original  soil  and  grown  alongside  under  precisely 
similar  conditions.  The  explanation  of  difference  in  yield  in 
one  generation  after  a change  of  locality,  as  between  two  parcels 
of  the  same  original  race,  can  apparently  only  be  put  down  to 
the  fact  that  the  seed  itself  brings  with  it  something  due  to  the 
soil  or  climate  in  which  it  was  grown,  which  is  useful  to  the 
