1675-1751

American politician who suggested cross-fertilization techniques for corn. A Massachusetts lawyer, Dudley was a fellow of the Royal Society and published essays in Philosophical Transactions about New England natural history. He noted that Indian corn was yellow, white, red, and blue and that rows of corn positioned yards apart or separated by water canals often had stalks with varying kernel colors. Dudley hypothesized that wind transported reproductive material, which influenced corn color. Geneticists, however, ignored his theory until the twentieth century.