New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-10-05
RUNS "HERED|TY" FARM
Major Hurst illustrates Natures
Freaks Over 100 Acres.
HYBRID FLOWERS GROWN
Also Guinea Pigs with Tails and
a New Species of Horse for
Military Duty.
tFrom The Tribune Correspondent

From The Tribune Correspondent
London, Sept. N.-Major Hurst's Hered.
ity Farm. near Leicester, has attracted
the admiration OF the three groups OF
biologists, botanlsts and agriculturists
that make up the British Association.
which met at Birmingham this week. At
Major Hurst's experimental farm the
questions of sex, the inheritance OF color
and the dominance of certain conflicting
parental qualities are illustrated in the
most original fashion and are very care
fully studied.
Fully one hundred acres are given up
TO things in which the strange laws OF
hered!ty may be observed. Flowers OF all
sorts, bushes, trees. rabbits, rats, poultry
and horses and. more remarkable still. the
village of Burbage all supply Major
Hurst with abundant evidence OF the
working Of regular laws in human
heredity.
In one part of the farm are rows Of
peas which were the first plants to dis
close Mendels law of inheritance. Close
by them are beautiful roses. snapdragons
and carnations, bred In curious fashion,
something taken from one bush. some
thing added TO another until the strang-
est sort OF hybrids have resulted. In an
other part Of the farm are cages and
cages OF guinea pigs. some OF which even
have tails. cultivated through the patience
OF Major Hurst and his co-workers.
Chickens are closely studied, and the re-
suits In egg laying by the various hens
amount almost to a competition, so great
is the interest taken by the Investigators.
Major Hurst has tried hard to enlist the
interest and sympathy Of the farmers In
the neighborhood, and has been success
ful In getting them to visit the farm in
large numbers. Their presence affords
the 20 >logists an opportunity to study the
farmers and their children and wives, and
so they unconsciously form part of the
statistics and serve TO demonstrate
whether or not "tallness," as in sweet
peas, or provinces" as I'm eyes, is
dominant over "shortness," or "blueness.'
It has reen proved by studying the Bur
bage people that red hair in the human,
just as chestnut in the horse, Is the true
aristocratic color; that is, It always comes
true II both parents are red" or chest
nut" all the children will be SO colored,
with a fidelity 10 type that does not oc-
cur in any other color.
! 1t has been ascertained that color
| blind man married to normal woman
| has only normal children. both boys and
| girls; the girls, even when married 20
normal men, have color-blind sons, but
the girls brothers never hand on the af-
lection. This is only one Of the things
that have been studied. Along with eye
Affections go the Hapsburg lip. curious
| form of hand called thumb -fingeredness'
| and feeble mindedness.
Major Hurst devotes just as much time
! TO the animal kingdom outside of man as
| he does TO the human being. Just now
| in partnership with another officer he IL
trying to create a new species of horse
for the War Department by working on
laws investigated on his farm. Others OF
| his school. OF which the headquarters are
at Cambridge University. are trying TO
induce certain varieties Of prolific poultry
to lay brown egg instead OF a white one