Soviet genetics and world science : Lysenko and the meaning of heredity / [Julian Huxley].
- Julian Huxley
- Date:
- 1949
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Soviet genetics and world science : Lysenko and the meaning of heredity / [Julian Huxley]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![complex interaction of complementary genes in the different inbred lines). The inbred lines, lacking hybrid vigour, look (and are) miserable ; but the new hybrids are immensely superior to the original strain. Nearly 100,000 inbred lines were prepared and tested in the course of the work. This procedure is estimated to have increased the corn crop [in the U.S.A.] by half a billion bushels a year. Some 90 per cent, of the corn in the Corn Belt is now hybrid corn ( 6 , p. 142). Each year something like 200,000 tons or more of hybrid seed is used for planting. (Haskell—1949.) During the war, the use of hybrid corn seed per mitted our farmers to grow in two years what normally would require three years with the old type varieties. Hybrid corn is worth about $1,000,000,000 a year to the farmers of the U.S.A. ( ibid p. 146). It is a great pity for the U.S.S.R. that they were in such a hurry and that they would not trust neo- Mendelian theory. On seeing the poor quality of the lines produced by intensive inbreeding, the Michuri- nites decided against time-consuming inbreeding procedures and in favour of direct selection from the original strains. This undoubtedly will have had a rapid effect over a short period, but the improvement will have been much less than what they could have obtained by following in the footsteps of the neo-Men- delians in America. It must also be remembered that Lysenko is a man of great energy, and that he enjoys the confidence of the peasants and agricultural workers in general ; and that this has certainly contributed to the success of the methods he advocates. Communism has practical achievement as part of its](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18022777_0199.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
