Luther Durbanh's Cobless Corn
AS AN' illustration ( the extreme
result wliuli mil lie pioduccd
ly plant breeding, n photographic
trtnoiliution u( l.uthcr llurbank's
tobies I'lmi i shown above.
This kind of eorn ha no practical
value, for roru on llic car, a it now
grnvvt, i i In- most ceonoiuic.il ami ati
faciury method of producing tli grain.
Tho cohtct corn pit Hired lirrr, how
ever, represent the form in which com
grew ten lliou.inil )car ago.
At with all "llirr plaint ami animal,
corn hat been made lirltrr ami better
liy tlovv drgrci )car liy ear liy the
liatut.il pifH'Cktc of evolution. The corn
wki'li we have tmlay is bigger, belter,
morn economically grown, more meful
to the world, than .my rorn which h.t
preceded it.
In breeding rorn kick ward ami Iwck
ward through the ages, Mr. Ilnrli. ink's
purpose wan to reveal the lepn through
which corn h.it come to it present Mate
of perfection, with the hope that in these
slept there might lie seen some possible
nirllioi) of improMimnt mimic hint or
clew whiih would how him how to lirccd
it forward several generation.
Ah jii example of what plant breeding
ran accomplish, it is interesting to note
that it took lent than eight year for Mr.
Ilurluuk to produce this no-called cob
lets com - less than eight car to carry
the plain ten thousand years iKtckvvard in
n hiitory.
Ily conducting this experiment, al
though the immediate renult h.t s no prac
tical value, Mr. lltirhnuk was aide to lay
hare the life evolution of corn, ami to
learn what may he expected of the im
proved corn of the future.
The corn which the American Indian
originally found vva not rohlfks corn
uch a it thovvn litre, hut wan in the
form of a wild grass now known as
TrtitiHte.
Thit wild grat hat a stalk and leaf
very much resembling precnt-dny corn,
hut the ear represent a half-way stage
hitweeu our present ears and the coble
lails dhow n here.
The coh of Teosintc was about as big
around as a small had pencil, perhaps
m
2'i to A niche long ji.d . .training
only two rows of kernel.
Ily a rrudu process of selection, the
Indians improved Teotitite o that when
the first white settler came they found
Maize, or Indian Com.
The priccs which the Indians ucd
was kimpluity itself; it was true plant
breeding, although they, perhaps, wire
unconscious of it.
It consisted in saving the largest and
host kernels for ccd just as intelligent
com growers do today; and as the In
diaus did this, vear after year, the ker
nols kept growing bigger ami biggir, ard
the ears got longer ami longer, until
finally an ear with four rows of kernels
instead of two resulted to be followed
by those with six, eight, ten and more
rows.
Thus purely by elemental selection--saving
the hot for reproduction the
Indians developed Teosintc from a 2'
inch, two-row car to an 8-inch, fourteen
row car.
Corn, of all of our important crops,
It m's itsf most readily to improvement