Most characteristics seemed to be averages of those of the parents, perhaps 'regressed toward the mean' of the population as a whole. This seemed to imply that unless there were careful restrictions on choice of mates, people would eventually become more and more average in height, intelligence and everything else. He grew several varities of peas which at maturity were yellow or green and which had either round or wrinkly shapes. In one experiment, Mendel cross-fertilized the smooth yellow variety with wrinkly green peas. Somehow, yellow completely dominated green and round dominated wrinkly.
Somebody still has to grow the plants to find out what the DNA does.
There should be about three times as many Round as wrinkly peas, and three times as many Yellow as green ones, if the characteristics combine at random. The journal wasn't well-known, but Mendel sent copies of the article to many eminent biologists of the day. It seems to have been ignored completely. Perhaps discouraged by the utter indifference of the world to his discovery, Mendel became a monastical administrator. Plausibly, Mendel kept counting seeds until the ratios were convincingly close to the prediction, then he stopped.