.116 Nebraska State Horticultural Society. 



THIRD SESSION. 



2:00 P. M. 



JOINT SESSION WITH THE AMERICAN BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION. 

 Hon. Chas. Willis Ward, Presiding. 



THE CHAIRMAN: I will not take up any time at all addressing 

 ^•ou, as we have quite a long program on for this afternoon. The first 

 paper is by Dr. Bessey, on "Crop Improvement by Utilizing Wild 

 .Species." 



CROP IMPROVEMENT BY UTILIZING WILD SPECIES. 



By Charles E. Bessey. 



It has been a favorite belief of mine for many years that there are 

 yet many wild species of plants which might well repay cultivation and 

 improvement. We must bear in mind the fact that every plant now 

 under cultivation was at one time wild, and that at some place some 

 man first began to give it that care which finally brought it to its pr?"- 

 ent state. For many plants the steps in the modification from the wild 

 to the cultivated state are lost, as is the case for Wheat, Oats, Rye and 

 Barley, of which the wild forms are not now certainly known. But 

 that they were slowly evolved by cultivation, variation (mutation, if 

 you please) and selection, can not be seriously doubted. We have only 

 to consider the history of the development of the many excellent 

 varieties of grapes from the American species of Vitis (Vitis labrusca, 

 yielding the Concord, Martha, Isabella, Catawba, etc.; V. aestivalis, 

 yielding Cynthiana, Cunningham, etc.; V. Vulpina, from which we have 

 the Clinton, Taylor, Elvira, etc. ; V. rotuudifolia, yielding the Scup- 

 pernong, Thomas and other southern varieties), in order to be assured 

 of the fact that a wild species can be greatly changed in a compara- 

 tively short time. The same story is told by the varieties of American 

 plums, evolved from the wild Prumis ainericana and other allied 

 species. Our Gooseberries were likewise derived from a couple of well- 

 known American species (Ribes oxycaiithoides and R. cynosbati). So, 

 too, our Raspberries are the more or less modified fruits of the native 

 American species, Rubus strlgosus, the wild red raspberries, and Rubiis 

 occidentalis, the wild black raspberries. 



