Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
922 
results. When corn is self-pollinated by putting the 
plant's pollen on its own silks, and this closest kind 
of inbreeding is continued year after year, there is 
a marked reduction in size and vigor. Along with 
this general result freak plants and degenerate types 
of all sorts appear, many of which are sterile or so 
weak and unproductive that they cannot survive, 
ltut all such forms are quickly eliminated. Along 
with these strikingly unfavorable results there is a 
marked improvement in the uniformity of the plants 
which survive. For example, in every ordinary 
field of corn there are white cobs and red cobs. 
Some ears are long and slim, and others are short 
and thick. Tall plants and short plants, differently 
colored plants and seeds, and many other variations 
are the commonplace. But after such corn is self- 
fertilized for a few years all the plants in any one 
family come to be exactly alike in type, having very 
nearly the same height, the same shape and size of 
ear. the same form of tassel and the color of .the 
grains and cobs are alike throughout. The inbred 
families finally reach a point where there is no fur¬ 
ther change, and as long as they are not crossed 
with other kinds of corn they remain the same year 
after year. Inbreeding does not cause degeneration 
and does not lead to extinction, as has long been 
thought, but it is merely a process of sorting out. If 
bad heredity exists in the stock it will come to 
light. 
SELF-FERTILIZING PLANTS.—It is impossible 
to go into all the features of the inbreeding problem, 
but it is well to note that many naturally self-fertil¬ 
ized plants like wheat, idee. peas and beans, are 
al ways inbred an every generation, and are not lacking 
in vigor. On the other hand, even the best inbred 
strains of corn are never so large and productive as 
they were in their natural state of being cross- pol¬ 
linated. But when two such inbred strains which 
came from different plants at the start are crossed, 
there is an astonishing increase in size and rate of 
growth in the generation immediately following the 
cross. All the hybrid plants the first year are. bar¬ 
ring accident, closely alike in height and vigor. Pic¬ 
ture a field of corn in which every plant grows to 
an even size, in which every stalk produces a large 
ear. and there are no barren individuals, no nubbins, 
no slackers. Such an ideal is very closely realized 
in hybrids between types of corn which have been 
purified by inbreeding. A field of this kind of corn 
differs in a remarkable way from the corn com¬ 
monly grown. 
FIRST GENERATION HYBRIDS.—This fine re¬ 
sult is obtained only the first year after crossing. 
When these plants are allowed to breed among them¬ 
selves, weak plants and poor producers again ap¬ 
pear. But this value of the first generation hybrid 
can be realized every year by planting crossed seed, 
and since the inbred parental strains are constant 
and permanent it is only necessary to cross these 
two types to produce this high-yielding seed. This 
is not a difficult task, as the different lots can be 
planted in alternate rows, and all the plants of one 
kind detasseled before pollen is shed. 
THE SECOND CROSS.—To make the matter 
more complicated, but with good reason, it has been 
found that the best results are secured by taking 
two of these vigorous hybrids having different pa¬ 
rentage, and again crossing them. Such a complex 
hybrid is called, for convenience, a double cross. 
The objects in doing this are several and important. 
First, the inbred plants are not productive and the 
seeds they bear are small and poorly developed and 
the first cross grown from them is handicapped at 
the start. When again crossed the seed for general 
field planting is borne on large, vigorous plants. 
Seed is produced in abundance and therefore cheap¬ 
ly. It is therefore apparent that this method is too 
complicated to be put into practice by the general 
corn grower, but it is a proposition that should inter¬ 
est anyone who is in the business of producing high- 
grade seed corn, and there is need for such in ever\ 
district. 
•SPECIALTIES IN SEEDS.—This is the age of 
specialization. We now bring our potatoes for 
planting from Maine and go to the Dakotas for 
Alfalfa seed. Timothy and clover come from Nor¬ 
way and Sw r eden, vegetable seeds from California 
and Europe. All these are bought because better 
seeds can be obtained more cheaply than they can be 
produced on the farm. There is now good reason why 
this should be the case with all kinds of corn. The 
increase in yield and improvement in quality of 
hybrid corn when types adapted to each region are 
available will be so apparent that one cannot afford 
to grow ? the fatherless brand of corn now so widely 
planted. D ‘ F * J0NES * 
Connecticut Experiment Station. 
Commencement and Semi-Centennial of 
Massachusetts Agricultural College 
Part IT. 
TRUE TO ITS MISSION.—It was fortunate that 
the college from the start has been a real college 
of agriculture. It most of the States the State col¬ 
lege lias been obliged to develop the mechanic arts 
alongside of agriculture. In Massachusetts the col- 
Fig. 375. The vigorous ligbrid shown at the center, 
which is the result of crossing the weak golden type 
of corn shoivn on the left with the dwarf on the 
right, illustrates the principle of heredity that cross¬ 
ing tends to suppress weaknesses, and the best from■ 
both parents makes the hybrid offspring large and 
sturdy. 
lege was freed from this requirement from the start 
by the State placing a part of the original Land 
Grant under the control of the Massachusetts Insti- 
tue of Technology. Thus M. A. C. has been able to 
concentrate in the one channel of agriculture, while 
at many of the State colleges the demands for train- 
Fig. 376. Double-crossed corn is not a new variety, 
but the product of a new method, backed by 2G years 
-• of scientific investigation. 
ing in the mechanic arts has been so great as to 
eclipse or at least curtail the work in agriculture. 
The work of the college along investigational lines 
was much enlarged following the passage of the 
July 16, 1921 
Hatch act in 1SS7. when Congress made special 
grants to all the Spates to be used to promote the 
work of investigation, and again in 1900. 
EXTENSION WORK THE BIGGEST FIELD.— 
Perhaps the biggest opportunity for expansion came 
with the grant by Congress for extension work in 
agriculture. This fund became available in 1912, 
and gave the college a chance to perfect its third 
legitimate field of work. At first the college in¬ 
terested itself only in the training of those who 
came to its doors for instruction; later it added the 
field of investigation, and now the third and more 
far-reaching type of work—that of carrying instruc¬ 
tion to the masses—Was to be developed. It is in¬ 
teresting to note that, the most rapid growth of the 
college corresponded with the period when the ex¬ 
tension work was being organized and launched 
throughout the State. 
ENLARGED FIELD OF WORK.—Today a new 
and enlarged field of work lies before the college, 
and seems to be calling for attention. The growth 
of the towns and cities has been so great during 
the past decade and the cost of food has so increased 
that the question of an ample suitable food supply 
to meet the needs of the industrial workers is of 
growing importance. Questions of distribution, 
conservation and the use of foods are now of greater 
importance than the one of increased production. 
This, means that in the farming scheme of the fu¬ 
ture economy of production and economy in market¬ 
ing are to be vital questions. It. means that, as Presi¬ 
dent Butterfield has aptly put it, the college must 
be a “food supply college.” In its work of investi¬ 
gation. in the future, the college must include ques¬ 
tions relating to economy of production, economy of 
distribution and marketing, and economy in the use 
of foods. It means that the work, through the ex¬ 
tension department and otherwise, must be made 
to reach the consumers in the cities as well as the 
producers on the land. United States Secretary of 
Agriculture Wallace aptly expressed the new func¬ 
tion of the college in his commencement address 
when he said; “The farmer needs all the training 
in production that the college can give, but the most 
urgent need now is an entirely new reel of organized 
knowledge of economic factors which will enable 
him to cheapen his production and improve Ids dis¬ 
tribution. - ’ 
IMPROVING DISTRIBUTION.—We believe it 
means, furthermore, that the people of the cities 
will become more and more interested in the work 
of the college. The question of distribution is to 
them of more vital importance than it. is to the 
farmer. If the present heavy tolls now taken, in the 
movement and storage of food, between the producer 
and the consumer, can be lessened, the consumer 
should profit fully as much as, if not more, than the 
farmer. Improvement in this line, however, must 
be brought about mainly by the active efforts of 
consumers. The consumer must learn to buy co¬ 
operatively, buy in relatively large quantities, and 
to buy when the supply is most available and so 
cheapest. He must learn how he can save by the 
right choice and the right use of foods. All of these 
things it will, however, be the function of the college 
to teach, especially through its extension depart¬ 
ment. As an illustration of wastefulness, the pres¬ 
ent tendency of consumers, in general, in our cities, 
to buy in small quantities and only as needed from 
day to day, resulted in the waste of fully one-half 
of the apple crop of the Eastern States last year. 
The general public were not willing to buy at harvest 
and take the fruit in such a form as the producers 
could afford to market it. Barrels were needed for 
long storage, and the high cost of these, together 
with the high labor cost for picking and handling, 
made the expense more than the market value of 
the crop. Had the people in our cities been willing 
to buy freely and in quantities in the Fall, and to 
take the fruit in their own containers at the cars, 
thousands of bushels that rotted on the ground could 
have been made available as cheap food. It will 
be the function of the college to endeavor to over¬ 
come such loss and waste by teaching the people of 
our cities how to buy, store and utilize such foods 
in times of plenty. As an illustration of what may 
be done in this direction, we have the home storage 
of eggs in water glass, a practice now followed by 
large numbers of people in our cities. The farmer 
should have no reason to deplore this expansion of 
the college. Whatever opens up and improves mar¬ 
keting conditions should benefit the farmer. What 
may seem to be the more direct problems of the 
farmer are increasing, and will demand and will 
surely receive the attention of the college, but the 
college needs a wider public backing if she is to have 
the needed support in a State where less than 10 per 
cent of the people are directly engaged in farming. 
C, B. FHEIJPS. 
