"One would expect therefore, Lysenko's claim to be supported by exhaustive and convincing experiments, carried out with pedigree plants free from disease. In actual fact, the experiments were carried out with plants of no certain pedigree, some of which carried the virus disease spotted wilt, which produces a red yellow mottling of the fruit. Furthermore the numbers of plants used was far too small to establish such a striking claim."

This is only one of the many examples which Lysenko and his school cite as evidence for their beliefs. There has been built up a large amount of data from similar experiments, all of which are claimed to prove the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Several experimentors have attempted to repeat these experiments to prove their validity, notably M. B. Crane, an American geneticist who tested a large number but was unable even in a single case to produce anything which might have been called a vegetative hybrid. Lysenko attributes such failures to the fact that the experimentors had not produced the "right conditions" but he neglects to say what the right conditions might be.