HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



American Florist^s Ideals* 



Paper Presented at the Third International Conference on Plant Breeding, 



London, Eng., July 30 to August 3, 1906, by J, H, Troy, Delegate 



from the Horticultural Society of New York. 



Apart from the academic interest in plant breeding, the mere raising of 

 new varieties and types for their own sake or for the sake of scientific 

 study and determination of relationships between different groups of plants, 

 there is an intensely practical side of the question. Upon our side of the 

 Atlantic this aspect of plant breeding receives a far greater consideration 

 than does the other. We may be even too practical in America. At all events 

 our plant breeders set out with extremely high ideals. It is not an excuse for 

 the introduction of a new form that it is merely different from other things; 

 from our ultra-utilitarian standpoint we insist that it shall be better. It is 

 for this reason that economic crops have received and are receiving such 

 close attention from our Government Department of Agriculture. The entire 

 force of that organization which embraces men of high scientific attain- 

 ments is devoted to the production of plants which will meet and overcome 

 conditions of practical horticulture and agriculture that may indeed be re- 

 garded as national problems. The whole energy of this expert staff is bent 

 towards combining the better qualities of the different plants into one new 

 type that shall be vastly superior to anything that has been had before. For 

 instance, we see for disease resistent varieties which will put into the 

 hands of the cultivator the means of livelihood that is at present barred. 



This conference is being made familiar with the details of the depart- 

 ment's work through another member who represents our national govern- 

 ment; but the problem before so vast a territory as the United States em- 

 braces many plants and crops which are outside the scope of staple food- 

 stuffs and agricultural field crops. There is the aesthetic phase of plant 

 growing in which the work is being carried on slowly, silently, by isolated 

 individuals, as purely business propositions, and without any subsidy from 

 scientific institutions or national funds. The florists of America have not 

 been behind their brethren in the Old World. We have already made great 

 strides in the production of new and distinct ornamental plants. Some 

 of the fruits of them are unknown to English horticulture. The American 

 Carnation, developed by pure process of breeding from the European type 

 of flower, has already recrossed the ocean and is receiving favourable at- 

 tention at your hands. Its distinctive characteristics are familiar to you in 

 such varieties as Enchantress, which you receive as a type of the American 

 Carnation. In roses our florists and gardeners have made distinct advances 

 along the lines quite different from those followed out by the Old World 



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