PLANT BREEDING PROBLEMS 



Many Opportunities on Pacific Coast — New Varieties with Definite Characters 



Needed — Fundamental Work with Old Varieties Must Be Done 



— What Has Already Been Accomplished' 



C. L. Lewis 



Chief, Division of Horticulture, Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Ore. 



TME Pacific coast has become 

 world-famous because of the 

 excellence of its fruits and fruit 

 products. Most varieties and 

 types of fruits that have been tried on 

 this coast have succeeded remarkably. 

 In fact, in most cases they do better 

 here than they do in their native homes, 

 growing to unusual size, developing a 

 high degree of color, and attaining 

 superior quality. 



Now, w^hile this fact of the success of 

 deciduous fruits on the Pacific coast is 

 a source of pride and satisfaction, as 

 well of material profit, to us, I believe 

 that it is, on the other hand, likely to 

 lead us to the comfortable but dangerous 

 assumjjtion that our fruits are good 

 enough; that, having apples, pears, 

 ]jlums, etc., which meet every market 

 requirement, we have lost sight to a 

 very large extent of the great contribu- 

 tions which we might make to the field 

 of horticulture by producing new and 

 still better varieties. 



Not onh' should we be thus desirous 

 of originating fruits of ever suri)assing 

 excellence, but we should be very eager 

 to contribute to the knowledge of 

 genetics, that we may be of service to 

 our co-workers in this field. Do not 

 understand me to imi)ly that nothing has 

 been done in this line on the Pacific 

 coast. Consider the many contribu- 

 tions of Luther Burbank; the Logan- 

 berry of Judge Logan; the famous 

 cherries of Lewelling (such as the 

 Re])ublican and the Bing); the intro- 

 ductions of other practical breeders 

 (the Lambert, Centennial, Deacon, 

 Lake, Hoskins, and Vesta cherries) ; or 

 the superior strawberries of the Pacific 



Northwest; and many other improved 

 fruits which I will not stop to entuner- 

 ate — but the man who says that we 

 have plenty of good enough varieties 

 of fruits and nuts at the present time, 

 and therefore need not try for new 

 varieties, has failed to analyze the 

 situation carefully. 



SOME IMPORTANT NEEDS 



We need a walnut, for example, that 

 is immune to the ravages of the walnut 

 blight. We need pears which can 

 survive the attack of the fire blight. 

 We need cherries that are never attacked 

 by giimmosis. We need prunes, es- 

 pecially in the Northwest, that mature 

 earlier, are sweeter, and, if possible, 

 larger. We need a red apple in the 

 spring. While it is true that we have 

 the Winesap, it is nevertheless a fact 

 that the Winesap is very exacting in 

 its requirements and is restricted to a 

 rather limited area. We need an apple 

 of wide ada]3tability, such as the Ben 

 Davis, but having at the same time 

 the qualities of the Esopus (vSpitzcn- 

 berg) or the Winesap, and this ajjple to 

 be in its prime for the late winter or 

 early spring market. We need cherries 

 which escape the rainy season. Es- 

 pecially do we need a flesh-colored 

 cherry of better shipping quaUty than is 

 possessed by any variety we have at the 

 ])rescnt time. These are only a few of 

 the suggestions that could be made for 

 the practical plant breeder. 



The men who are w^orking in the 

 field of genetics on the Pacific coast at 

 the i^rescnt time can be divided into 

 two great classes. The first class may 

 be called that of the plant-lover, or so- 



' Read before the twelfth annual meeting of the American Genetic Association, Berkeley Cal., 

 August 6, 1915. 

 468 



