119 



Pl.AXT BreKDING. 



N. E. Hansen, of South Dakota, read the following paper on Methods in Breed- 

 ing Hardy Fruits : 



My purpose in this brief paper is simply to emphasize some of the points 

 brought out in Bulletins 87 and 88 of the South Dakota station published this 

 season. In crossing various fruits I have found it of decided advantage over 

 the old outdoor method to do the work under glass. The trees, shrubs, and plants 

 are raised in pots, boxes, or tubs for a year or two before blossoming time. Iii 

 winter they are stored in a si)ecially eonstructed tree cellar, where they are kept 

 dormant and even allowed to freeze somewhat, with enough windows to afford 

 some light. In late winter or early si)ring they are brought into the greenhouse, 

 and the crossing is done when the flowers are reaily. Only a small part of the 

 blossoms are emasculated ; the remainder are removed while still in the bud. 

 No sacks are necessary, as a rule. As soon as possible the plants are put out- 

 doors to ripen the wood, ^\■hen there is no room in the greenhouse the tubs 

 are taken direct from the cellar to their permanent sunmier position late enough 

 to escape frosts. 



As a whole, the method demands close attention and careful manipulation. 

 While visiting orchard houses in Europe in 1894 and again in 1807 the thought 

 came to me that tills method could be utilized in experiments in the prairie 

 Xorthwest. The applicability of this method elsewhere remains to be deter- 

 mined. 



The use of dwarf stocks is necessary, as the Paradise for the apple, quince 

 for the pear, and the western sand cherry for the stone fruits. 



Considerable success has been secured in ha.stening the fruiting of cross-bred 

 .seedlings. For instance, strawberries originated one winter by crossing the 

 wild with the tame have been raised up to fruiting size the same year outdoors 

 and fruited in pots under glass the following winter. This saves much time 

 in selecting varieties for propagation, and also hastens the work of propagation 

 by our being able to pot many layers before transplanting to the field. 



In handling a quarter of a million fruit seedlings I find many interesting 

 side lines of investigation jiresenting themselves, but just now the main effort 

 must be to originate a few varieties of the various orchard and small fruits 

 worthy of a permanent place on the present limited fruit list. Some of the 

 seedling variations which present themselves make me feel confident that Dr. 

 Hugo De A'ries in his theory of mutation hit the nail on the head. It is cer- 

 tainly a very helitful thought that new forms worthy of specific rank can origi- 

 nate as sports: th.-it e\olution is by steps instead of being a long and very 

 gradual upward slope. Members of the legislature who have the dispensing of 

 funds will certainly find more comfort in the theory of De Tries than in that 

 of Darwin. My experience at first hand with many thousand seedlings of 

 native and cultivated fruits an.d plants certainly compels me to believe that the' 

 evolution of new sjiecies as the result of man's effort intelligently directed is 

 more like the labor of an inventor of machinery in his workshop than that of 

 an observer of an ever changing panorama. In brief, plant breeding Is the 

 inventing of new plants, using material as fv.rnished by nature, and the time 

 necessary for the work with modern scientific methods is very much shorter 

 than that usunlly considered necessary. The modern plant breeder rides in 

 his automobile on the highway of evolution. And perhaps Mendel's law and the 

 De Vries mutation theory are two of the wheelf. 



T. L. Lyon, of Nebraska, discussed Improvement in the Quality of Wheat, as 

 follows: 



My object in presenting this matter at this time is to call attention to the dif- 

 ficulties that present themselves in attempting to improve the quality of wheat.. 

 So far as I have been able to ascertain, efforts at improvement in the quality of 

 wheat have not dealt with the individual plant, but with the progeny of other- 

 wise desirable plants. In selecting plants for improvement the selection has 

 been based primarily on the yield of grain, stiffness of straw, rust resistance, 

 or other points of that kind. After several generations had been j)roduced the 

 selection was then applied to quality. The result of this has been to limit the 

 number of plants selected for quality, and thus to curtail the possibility of 

 improvement in that direction. 



The reason that selection for improvement has not gone hand in hand with 

 selection for yield in the individual plant is because we have not had a method 



