Show Experiments With Plants Fail to Show Environment Has Influence On Heredity A Professor Declares t Soft ft Surroundings However Favor avor Poor Inheritances He Points Out 5 Editors Editor's Note Peculiarities of plants animals and man probably probe I ably are In part a matter of or environment en rn and In part a matter 1 of or heredity says Professor R. R A. A Emerson The effects of or heredity and environment on plants and animals are discussed in the following fol Col lowing article By R. R A. A EMERSON Professor of or Plant Breeding Cornell University Copyright 1931 by the Associated I Press ITHACA N N. Y July Jub 3 3 I 1 have a kind of corn which ordinarily has w white cars ears but if it the husks arc re rc removed moved before the kernels have ha hardened hard e erred ened ed in ripening the ears become red If the husks arc stripped off from only onty one side of the car the kernels thus exposed to the light become red and those kept in darkness remain white The heredity of the whole ear earis earis earis is the same and yet the kernels that ripened In one environment sunlight sun sun- light are arc red while those In ln an an- other environment darkness are arc white I r have another kind of corn com that always produces red kernels whether exposed to the light or not 1101 I r have also a third kind that never has red kernels even when the developing car is exposed We cannot say that red kernels as such are inherited What actually is inherited Is the thc ability to develop red color in ln the presence of strong light the ability to react with light to produce red and to react with i darkness to produce white kernels DUE TO TWO CAUSES i I 1 suspect that all aU peculiarities of plants animals animal and man are in part parta a no matter of environment and in part parta a matter of heredity I do not think of these effects of heredity and of en en- environment as being at all tic Many questions grow crow out of this conception of the interaction of heredity ad d environment What about changing ones one's heredity or at least the heredity of ones one's children by changing ones one's environment Will training a race horse properly so that he breaks a world record make his colts better runners than the they would have ha been had he hc not been trained at all aU Will forcing a dairy cow by the thc best feed and care to give ghe the utmost quantity of milk of which she is capable make her progeny g give gi e emore more milk than they would have given had she been allowed to hustle for her living on a dry western range Will training our children In music make our grandchildren natural musicians Some have believed that these thes e questions could be given an affirms affirmative live tive answer but I 1 know of no crucial evidence to support such answers Most of the so-called so evidence e that t has been pre presented is worthless worthleSs' W We cannot conduct controlled experiments ments gents with humans and anden even en our ou r domestic animals leave much to b be re e desired in this respect PLANTS TS WORK BETTER DETTER Plants afford much better material material mate mate- mateS e rial for such tests for Wheat instance instance in S stance tance is self-pollinated self and md barring rare accidental pollination cross th the e seedlings grown from a single wheat t plant all have identically the same samel heredity Such a pure line of wheat t was grown on rich soil for 20 years and another lot of the same pure line lineon lineon line lineon on very poor soil for the thc same length h of time Throughout these 20 gen generations the plants on rich soil were large and productive while the small 1 plants grown on poor soil yielded little lit littie tIe tle more seed than enough to maintain main tale tain the tile line At the end of this 20 year ear period the two lots were planted plant plant- ed side by side on uniform soil An And I with what result The plants o oboth of 1 both lots were ere as near nearly Identical a as s any two lots of wheat could be Noa Not No Nota t a a. measurable difference was fount found d between them Now what relation does docs all this thi s have ha to the practice of plant or animal ani mal breeding and what relation to the education and training of our children I do not sire s e that it need modify our practice In these respects at all alI The breeder of animals will continue to force his dairy cows and running horses to do their best not because this will change directly the heredity abilities of the progenies of or these animals but because In no other way can he tell teIl whether the heredity of his breeding animals Is such that they can respond to good feed or to rigorous training In no other way can he select the best for breeding purposes EDUCATION OF OP CHILDREN Again in hi the matter of educating our children we shall continue to give them such advantages as we can I I If they have inherited the abUit ability to tOI react well welI to good environment and l less Ss well to poor surroundings it behooves be be- hooves us to give them as favorable surroundings and as good an tion as we can We hear much about softening th the e I fiber of at human kind through the in fluence of a pampering civilization There is perhaps some truth in this idea Although a n. soft environment t does not change the heredity of a an n individual does docs not make a weak In hi heredity out of a strong one such an environment does make i it t possible for weak heredity strains hi in the human stock to propagate their kind whereas in a more rigorous environment only the more virile virUe strains of humans could persist |