8 
Bulletin 103. 
wild and the rest he has so far failed to discover in the wild state. 
Darwin in his investigation of domesticated plants came to 
the conclusion that in cases similar to this the cultivated plant 
either was so changed in its growing habit by its new environment 
that its wild prototype could not be recognized or that its original 
parent ceased to exist. 
Prof. A. M. Ten Eyck of Kansas in an address on “Plant 
Adaptation” before the Corn Breeders’ Association of that state 
last March stated: 
“Prom a single, comparatively valueless, primitive wild form have 
originated in the course of time thousands of valuable varieties of plants, 
all differing from the original and some to such an extent that they cannot 
be recognized.” 
Prof. W. M. Hays, in the Minnesota Experiment Station 
Bulletin No. 62, speaking of variations in individual wheat plants 
says: 
“Among the four hundred plants of McKendry’s Fife for example, 
plants were found which matured in ninety-seven days, others requiring one 
hundred twenty-seven days. Among Power’s Fife (wheat) plants, the 
range was from ninety-eight to one hundred seventy-two days; and among 
Haynes’ Blue Stem plants the range was from ninety-nine to one hundred 
twenty-eight days. 
“The ten plants which appeared to the eye as the best yielding 
plants out of the four hundred of each variety, w r ere harvested and notes 
taken as to the height of plant, number of spikes, length of spikes and yield 
of shelled grain. The following table shows the extremes of the variation in 
each case: 
VARIATION AMONG BEST TEN OUT OF FOUR HUNDRED 
WHEAT PLANTS. 
Name of Variety. Height of Stalks. Length. No. of Yield in 
inches. of Spikes. Spikes. grams, 
inches. 
Haynes’ Blue Stem. 31 to 39 4 to 4% 19 to 31 15.4 to 19.4 
Powers’ Fife. 27 to 33 3 x / z to 4 18 to 33 3.4 to 13.8 
McKendry’s Fife. 30 to 33 3 V 2 to 4 22 to 33 6.8 to 16.7 
In breeding corn, the writer has observed that individual plants 
in the same breed or type of corn, vary widely in producing power, 
height of ears on the stalk, height of stalk, width and number of 
leaves and period of maturity of corn. The Iowa Seed Company 
state their earlist maturing type of dent corn—Farmers’ Reliance— 
was developed by selecting the lowest ear on individual plants, 
these ears usually ripening first. At the Kansas station a pure bred 
type of corn known as Reid’s Yellow Dent, was planted in the 
season of 1903—an ear to a row. These ears were carefully se¬ 
lected for uniformity and trueness to the breed characteristics of 
that type of corn. The resulting harvest from these different rows 
showed almost as much difference in the character of plants in dif¬ 
ferent rows as in different supposedly fixed types of yellow dent 
corn, while difference in yield between highest anl lowest was nearly 
four hundred per cent. The very best ears from the best yielding 
and most desirable mother ears were selected for the mother ears 
