129 



The brief reports which are here siil)initted relative to the work now in prog- 

 ress in the several stations and the plans nnder consideration for the extension 

 of this work, indirate clearly that this field of investigation, which has vnitil 

 recently been almost entirely neglected by the experiment stations, through 

 various causes for which they have not been responsible, is soon to become one 

 of the most interesting and profitable lines of investigation. 



H. E. Summers, of Iowa. I may say that certain animals. Including the 

 cavles, for instance, which have been investigated quite extensively, have been 

 found in certain characteristics, viz, color, condition of albinism, and length of 

 hair, to conform absolutely to Mendel's law. I have myself a litter of four 

 white cavies only two days old, from a white and colored mother, in which the 

 probabilities under any other conditions than the Mendelian law would be 

 almost too great to be conceived of. This is simply one illustration, and of 

 cour.se would not prove the law. but it agrees with some thousands of experi- 

 ments which have shown that the law applies. 



W. M. Hays, of Minnesota. Whether these conflicting reports are really con- 

 flicting or based on experiments that really give the true comparison as to the 

 operation of the Mendelian law, I can cite the following case: An experimenter 

 in England. I understand, worked on the color of some animals and found that 

 it did not follow the Mendelian law, but he afterwards found that there were 

 three component colors in that compound color, and when taken separately they 

 did follow the Mendelian law, and that these were the unit characters while 

 the component color was a variable character. Practically a parallel case was 

 found in the orchid grown by some English experimenter, in which the com- 

 ponent colors operated in accordance with the Mendelian idea, whereas the 

 blended color had not so operated. Experiments must first be made along the 

 line of finding whether the characteristic in question is a dominant or unit 

 character. 



N. S. Mayo, of Cuba, spoke briefly of that country as a field for the breeding 

 and adaptation of animals. 



W. M. IIays. In the recent breeding school at St. Louis Doctor Cary. of 

 Alabama, brought out the fact that he thought it might be possible to breed 

 immunity to Texas fever in the southern belt, and that then quarantine methods 

 might he used to gradually push the tick out of that country. Experiments 

 have also been suggested along the line of breeding for at least comparative 

 immunity from tuberculosis in cattle, thus lessening tuberculosis in man to 

 sou;e extent: also the possibility of breeding for comparative immunity to swine 

 plague in hogs. Some of the smaller animals can be used, no doubt, to illus- 

 trate whether immunity can be reached by this method ; for instance, rabbits 

 are very subject to tuberculosis and they might be used in a preliminary 

 experiment. Experiments are now being successfully made in the breeding of 

 plants immune to disease. I'rofessor Bolley has recently produced very 

 pronounced results on flax. At the school in St. Louis Professor Bolley brought 

 out with very great force the idea that if you want to breed for imnnniity the 

 disease must be present in great quantity. Of course that is true of all breeding. 

 We must breed as nearly as we can under the extreme conditions we wish the 

 final product to withstand. 



The committee on nominations reported as follows : 



For members of executive connnittee, W. H. Jordan, of New York ; C. F. 

 Curtiss, of Iowa ; for chairman of section, H. J. Patterson, of Maryland : for 

 secretary of section, M. A. Scovell, of Kentucky: for additional niemliers of 

 committee on programme, C. D. Woods, of Maine, J. F. Duggar, of Alabama. 



The secretary was instructed to cast the ballot of the section in favor of the 

 persons so nominated. 



