The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-15
IMPROVING THE CORN.
GuilfOrd Dudley of Topeka
Makes an Interesting Study
Of the Decentralization of
the Standard Grain.
Experiments Which Attract Secretary
Wilson's Attention.

tention among grain growers.
One of the latest subjects to engage the
attention of the enterprising farmers of
Kansas is that of the cross breeding of
corn. The principle is not entirely new.
but so far as can be ascertained from the
| agricultural year books and other authori-
ties, no systematic effort at cultivation
of this kind was made before 1897, when
limited experiments were undertaken by
Colonel Guilford Dudley, a prominent
banker and farmer of this city. The
suits of these experiments were forward
ed to Secretary Wilson of the United
States department of agriculture, and re-
ceived his enthusiastic commentator. with
a request that more elaborate experiments
be prosecuted and additional information
furnished for the benefit of the public.
Colonel Dudley states that he has been
studying the theory of cross breeding for
some time and is surprised that the mat
ter has so long escaped the investigation
of agricultural colleges and state depart
ments.
He says he has found scarcely anything
in the newspapers concerning a subject
that in his judgment is destined to revo-
lutionize the whole business of grain
growing At the request of the farmers
of this locality who have been observing
his work in this direction, Colonel Dudley
mas prepared a paper on the SubJeCl-
Although this paper was not read at the
meeting of grain men here, it was widely
discussed by Prof. VIII and others who
had heard of it. The following is the
article:
1.-The cross-breeding of plants is not
new scientific discovery, simply one that
is not generally known. Since the publi~
cation of the works of Charles Darwin in
1859, the evolution of plants as well as of
ayi7 Is haS we'll f)liShed. Prof
T. H. Huxley took up the work soon after
Darwin, and elaborated and sinnplified the
basic principles of plant breeding and do
mesticatio to the easy unders tanding of
all.
Many farmers harbor sentiments of OPP
position, averseness to scientific farming
hold it to be a fruitful source of costly
experiments without the adequate returns
"a sort of relaxation of means acquired
by other avocations, or by Inheritance, or
by chance. This need not necessarily
follow Webster defines science to be as
certained truth Prof. Huxley says:
Truth is common sense clarified Scien-
tific farming then must mean systematic
application of common sense.
Most of US have a profound respect for
such scientists as Isaac Newton, Benja-
min Franklin, Thomas H. Huxley, Charles
Darwin ct al, through whose instrument
tally and division of science known as
biology has come to be one of the ele-
mentary branches in the revival of learn
ing. The biologists tell US that when
they examine the physical organization OF
man they resolve him into the finest par
tfcles into which the microscope will en>
able them to break him up; then they
make a sort of anatomical record OF de-
velopments his functions and activities.
and study his environments as he appears
on the surface to the world They then
take up other animals most convenient
the bird dog, for instance, and they find
that his body is receivable into the same
elements as that of the man-and so of all
the other animals; that their microscopic
INQUIRIES resolve them at last into specks
of animated jelly.
srThen they pursue their Investigations
into the vegetable world, and find they
can in the same way follow out the struct>
ure of the plant from the most intricate
dover. grass or shrub up to the largest
tree. And SO with their seeds, the store |
houses of OIL starch, fiber and gluten, |
which either in their normal state or IN
their concentrated form, comprise the |
whole menu of animal food Oxygen Is |
required by the animals Caroonlc aclo |
gas is essential to the plant. Protein IS
manufactured from the elements by the |
plant, which is destitute of sense and |
voluntary motion, still has the wonderful !
gift the power to charge its produce I
Protein) with the innate living principle /
of organic life. Scientists, with the aid |
of the most expert chemists, have vatnly |
tried to analyze protein. They can change !
it back to the elements, but cannot re-
store any part to it's living self again.
1.-The animal will take the same nitro
genous. amOrphous substance into its
laboratory (stomach). dissolve it, analyze
it and reproduce it again in living protein. |
Under a microscopic investigation the |
most Industrious student, the most pro-
foundIy learned, cannot separate nor tell |
the difference between the vegetable jelly
and the animal jelly. Thus biologists
have arrived at the conclusion that fun
damental uniformity of structure pervades
the animal and vegetable worlds. and that
plants and animals differ from one another
simply as adverse notifications of the
same general plan According to Prof.
Huxley the study of living bodies is re-
ally one discipline. which is divided into
zoology and botany simply a matter
of convenience. The animal and vege-
table worlds are only two aspects of the
same fundamental series Of phenomena,
each capable of throwing a flood of light
upon the other.
This, then, is the foundation of my
gument, that the same general, natural
laws that control animal life control
plant life. If the premises be admitted
the CONCLUSIONS are inevitable VINO WouIu
think of improving the desirable qualities
of his dairy herd, or of his swine, of
his chickens, by long. too close fnbreed-
ing? Darwin says, Nature abhors con-
tinuous inbreeding.' We have the expert
ence of ancestors for hundreds of years in
breeding animals. Their success is IN
questioned, their Improvement generally
conceded. If the same general laws con-
troll plant evolution, why not cross-breeo
the corn. wheat, oats, potatoes garden
products and fruits? Why simply hunt