3°° 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. I, No. 4 
descended a single large seminal root. (See PL XXX, iig. 2.) These 
seminal roots were traced to a depth of 35 cm. and extended even farther 
down. They were still fresh and densely covered with fine branches. 
This mass of 15 seminal roots, while less in volume than the nodal roots 
arising near the surface, was apparently playing an important part in the 
support of the plants. The mesocotyls connecting the seminal roots 
with the plants above, while dry on the outside, were filled with live 
tissue quite unlike the dry and shrunken mesocotyls found in plants of 
similar age grown under more favorable conditions. 
When planted by the Indian methods, the Hopi and Navajo varieties 
of maize have been found superior to the more improved eastern varieties 
for these very dry regions. At the time of our visit there was a small 
field near Kearns Canyon that had been planted by eastern methods. 
The plants were in rows and thinned to one stalk to the hill. There 
had evidently been a fair germination, but the plants had died without 
reaching maturity and had produced no seed. At the same time, in 
the nearest Indian fields at Polacca the plants were dark green and 
maturing a fair crop, though the season was said to have been unusually 
dry. (See PI. XXXI, fig. 3.) 
Even under irrigation the somewhat larger strains grown by the 
Navajos have been found to compare very favorably with eastern types. 
Several acres of Navajo maize were seen at Shiprock, N. Mex., under 
irrigation. The fields were very uneven, apparently the result of alkali, 
but in the better portions the yield was good. The plants were standing 
about 2 feet apart in the row, the rows 4 feet apart, and nearly every 
plant was bearing from two to four fair-sized ears. (See PL XXXII.) 
The ears from 36 plants, representing a number of distinct types, were 
collected. The 36 plants bore in all 94 ears, weighing 37.6 pounds, an 
average of 15.2 ounces per plant. The plants producing these ears 
averaged only a little over 5 feet in length. 
CONCLUSIONS 
Throughout the western part of the Great Plains area the difficulty 
of securing uniform germination is a serious obstacle to the growing of 
maize. With the varieties commonly grown, if the seed is planted at 
the customary depth, many seeds fail to germinate from insufficient 
moisture; if planted deep enough to come in contact with moist soil, 
the plants may fail to reach the surface. 
The agricultural Indians of the Southwest have continued from pre¬ 
historic times to grow maize successfully in regions where drought, and 
especially the absence of spring rains, makes it much more difficult to 
start the crop than in the Great Plains. A study of the varieties grown 
by the Hopis and other agricultural Indians shows that these varieties 
possess two special adaptations: (1) A greatly elongated mesocotyl that 
permits deep planting and (2) the development of a single large radicle 
