II. FOREWORD (Swan Song)

I have been connected more or less intimately with Maize Genetic Coöperation from its beginning. Some years I have had to devote considerable time to it and other years almost none. On the whole I feel that I have probably done less than I should and certainly less than I am credited with having done. I am now an "emeritus" and rather enjoy it. I am anxious to complete (before my number comes up) certain maize genetic problems that have been underway for a long time and which will require yet further years of work. I am willing to admit no more than that I am not growing younger as the years go by. Any way I feel that, whether well or poorly, I have about done my stint and that some one else should soon assume responsibility for this coöperative effort. An appropriate time for a change is now when our most recent grant from the Rockefeller Foundation is to be closed out.

I shall, of course, retain an interest in this undertaking. If no other prior arrangement is made, I shall probably find myself planting certain genetic stocks again next spring and at pollination time shall wonder why I haven't yet learned to limit my planting to what I can take care of.

During the past year, many genetic stocks that were most in need of replenishment were grown and pollinated by Dr. M. J. Murray and Miss Rosalind Morris. Miss Morris has grown in the greenhouse many cultures showing seedling characters. When resort must be had to ears from normal plants of segregating cultures, it is important to determine which of the normals are heterozygous for the characters in question. Murray also spent much time in a study of the stocks on hand and of available records and succeeded in bringing at least some measure of order into the rather chaotic situation that I had allowed to develop.

R. A. Emerson