Science: Hybrid Udders

George Bernard Shaw once made (or is supposed to have made) a classic retort to Isadora Duncan's eugenic proposal: "Madam, what if our child should have your brain and my body?" Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace has spent much of his working life investigating the implications of G.B.S.'s rude rejoinder.

He started by crossbreeding corn (using methods developed by earlier U.S. botanists) and launched a hybrid corn boom which has added an estimated 30% to the U.S. maize yield. By suppressing undesirable recessive characteristics in the crossed plants, hybridization produces hardier, more vigorous offspring. Crossbreeding has been extended to other plants, poultry,...

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