“PLANT BREEDING IN U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.” 3807 
The Department has also undertaken to improve the pineapple by 
cross-breeding. This work was begun by Messrs. Webber and Swingle, 
and in recent years has been carried on by Dr. Webber. I have myself 
tasted many of these cross-bred pines, and some of them have proved to 
be remarkably good. The effort has been to procure, not only pines 
having an excellent flavour (we have many such already), but also those 
having other qualities specially desirable for our market, such as medium 
size, shallow eyes, juiciness, absence of hard core, attractive top, good 
shipping and keeping quality. Alcng with these qualities we have sought 
for increased vigour in the plant, increased resistance to disease, and 
absence of spininess in the foliage. Some of our cross-bred pines com- 
bine these qualities to a marked degree and indicate that cne can obtain 
almost any sort of pineapple he desires by persistent cross-breeding. 
I will mention only one other case. We have bred tobacco very 
diligently during the last few years in order to obtain a uniform quality 
of wrapper leaf of high character, and in this we haye been remarkably 
successful. This work has been largely in the charge of Mr. A. D. 
Shamel, one of Dr. Webber’s assistants. Starting out with an arbitrary 
standard of perfection, he has worked steadily towards producing plants 
having the desired qualities, and has now obtained many such plants, a 
portion of which I have seen. I have also seen photographs made by him 
showing whole fields of tobacco in which each plant looked exactly like 
every other plant; the leaves, when cured, having the right length, 
breadth, and thickness, the right texture, and the proper burning quality 
to make a first-rate wrapper leaf. All this has been accomplished within 
the last four or five years by diligent in-and-in breeding and careful selec- 
tion. The tobacco has proyed as plastic in our hands as the pineapple, and 
almost anything can be accomplished in the way of obtaining a desirable 
wrapper leaf by persistent endeavour. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., V.M.H.: As I listened to the speech of 
Dr. Erwin Smith I could not help seeing how progressive the United 
States Department is in all matters relating to the development of their 
ountry ; and as the remarks | had proposed to make on another subject 
are particularly apposite to this question, I beg the permission of the 
President to allow me to say a few words now on the question of the 
hybridisation of trees. 
When you consider the subject of the hybridisation of trees you will 
find it to be one of extraordinary difficulty, especially from the economic 
point of view, on account of the time necessary to see the results of 
experiments. But at the same time you will also perceive the enormous 
importance of the subject. Strange as it may seem, some of the most 
important scientists, including, I may say, Professor Mayle of Munich, 
absolutely deny the propriety of selection, and refuse to consider the 
possibility of applying to the breeding of trees, and the raising of them 
from seeds, the same laws which have been proved to be of enormous 
advantage to the world in respect of all other plants. Then it was that it 
seemed to me that it might be worth while for this Conference to consider 
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