Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-07-05
Tuesday, July 5, 1921.
EVOLUTION Of CORN
Great Cereal Mas Originally an Ordl.
:: nary Weed.
INDIANS BROUGHT IT into USEFULNESS
Hard Working Scientists Have Dis
covered Enough About Natures Sc
crets to Enable Them to Hurry Pro-
ccsses That are Otherwise Exceed

CTGtS u CVdDlG HeIT IC
ccsses That are Otherwise Exceed
',' ngly Slow.
The plant which botanists have al
ways considered the probable ancestor
Of our; present, varieties OF maize is 4
wild grass called teosinte. They have
long believed that the presence Of In
dian corn in America represented an
evolution brought about by crude
plant breeding methods of the Indians.
extending Through untold centuries.
Luther Burbank, in order to prove the
truth Of this theory, has now carried
the plant through successive develop
ments and produced perfect ears of
corn in the miraculously short period
of eighteen years" Public announce
mcnt of this prodigy. which has been
proceeding quietly at Burbank's cx-
perimentaf farm in California since
1903 and which constitutes one Of the
most notable achievements of the plant
wizards life khas just been made,
1t was a savage Indian, says Bur-
bank, who gave US, here lin America,
the most important. crop we have. It
was the Indian who found the wild
grass, tcosinte.' covering the plains, and
developed it into corn. Or. to turn it
the other way around, it was the de-
sire of the Indian for food plant like
this which led the teosinte grass, by
gradual adaptation. to produce maize.
On Burbank.s farm there grows today,
this same tcosinte which the Indian
found. 1t bears tiny ears. Mith two
rows of corn-likc kernels, on q cob the
thickness Of Iat lead pencil and from
two to four inches long-slightiy less
in length than an average head of
wheat.
Found Indian AN Ally.
From it's earlier stages of pod" corn,
in which each kernel was cncased in a
separate sheath, .or huSk. like wheat.
teosinte represented, no doubt, hard
fought survival and adaptation like
that Of the Towering violet. And when
the Indians came into it's environment
it responded to their influence as the
pansy responded to care and cultiva-
tion in its new dooryard home.
Where tcosinte had formerly relied
upon the frosts to loosen up the ground
for the seed, it found in the Indian q
friend who crudcly but effectively
scratched the soil and doubled the
chance for it's baby" plant to grow.
Where it had been choked by plant en-
cmies: and starved for air and sun
light by: weeds, it found in tho Indian
a friend who cut down and kept off its
competitors. Where it had been de-
stroycd by animals before its maturity,
it found the selfish protection of the
savages as grateful as if it had been
inspired By altruism.
Planted in patches, instead of strug-
Cling here and there as best it could
before, the tcosinte grass found its
multiplication problem easier through
the multitude of pollen grains now
floating through the air. And so, by
slow degrees. it responded to it's new
environment by bearing more and big
ger seed. AS the seed kernels increased
in numbers and size the cob that bore
them grew in length. From two, the
rows of kernels increased to four, TO
six. to eight, to fourteen. Hero again.
served to help the plant in it's adapta-
tion--for only the largest cars and
those with the best kernels were saved
for seed. So. under cultivation, the
wild grass almost disappeared. and in
its place there "a ar1c. through adapta-
ton. the transformed Indian corn.
Centuries Were Required.
This, in brief, summarizes Burhank's
theory Of the original evolution of teo-
sintc into corn. How many centuries
were required to bring about tho DC
velopment we can only conjecture, for
when white settlers came to America
they found not the tiny wild tcosintc,
but Indian corn, on" maize bcaring
eight inch ears. with fourteen rows Of
lttl Sc hCI Il'lso W NIlc tul--ll'tAN iS-
sponsc tn the simple plant breeding
methods of the savage. It is not
known how long the Indians had been
cutvating this improved corn. That
it was long before the appearance of
Europeans. however! is evident not
only from its early and widespread
cultivation by tribes of the area now
embraced in the United States, but
from the fact that Indications Of it's
cultivation arc. found in mounds and in
tho ancient pueblo ruins and cliff
dwellings,.
IL was natures scheme Of producing
variationS--hcr apparently unaltcrable.
will to create no dup!lcatcs-that
opened W to burbank his opportunity
to carry forward the evolution Of tco-
p, sintc into corn-in Il comparatively few
seasons. In his experiments with the
plant he produced more than 10000
specimens on his grounds. Among
these thousands he found some off
suring which were an Improvement
over the parent plants 1t was then
simply matter of continued and m
tensive application OF scientific melh-