42,9, REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS, 
from the eons of the past, within the area of his trial grounds as well as 
within the grasp of his mental and physical activity. 
I have spoken of limitations, and the man who will most feel the 
restricting force of these limitations is the one who specialises his 
specialty, and by the production of innumerable examples of the possible 
practical results he desires to attain, opens up new and improved avenues 
for further advancement, until he becomes mentally stalled between these 
results and the horizon of the visible field, a horizon which will broaden 
as he advances, to an eternity of possibility beyond the conception of the 
human mind. 
I have frequently stated that the plant-breeder, with the full comple- 
ment of the chemical constituents of his laboratory stock in a condition of 
control, can do anything he may wish to do in producing types of his 
specialty at will. Not only is this so, but he will be surprised to-find in 
the yearly course of his practice that he will develop more advanced 
types, and thus will have forced upon his recognition the interesting fact 
that he can do all he had hoped to accomplish and far more; and further, 
that the advancing years of his activity extend the visible field of possible 
satisfaction ; and still further, that these possibilities broaden infinitely 
with each succeeding year of production and added knowledge. 
The foregoing evidence and argument could be multiplied and pro- 
longed indefinitely were it needful, but I will pass on to the subject of 
this address—the results to accrue from the practical aspect of plant- 
breeding—for this is the great and valuable end of all our effort, mental 
or physical, theoretical or practical. Barren of results, the arm-chair 
scientist may cease to theorise, and the field worker abandon his labours 
and investigations while grilling under the summer sun, for resuits are 
the standard by which man’s work is judged. 
By practical plant-breeding I mean the application of that knowledge 
of the science which will enable the worker to secure the highest ratio of 
economic value in advanced results of an esthetic or utilitarian character. 
This is one of the most important features of plant-breeding, as the 
value of the knowledge of what may be done by crossing is small when 
compared with that of the practice which will give manifold results of 
value to mankind, and the highest average of quality for the time and 
area occupied by the operator. 
In my work on the Canna, which embraced all available species and 
early European hybrids, as well as the latest and best productions obtain- 
able, I proved yearly the correctness and value of my contention, for 
seven years of select breeding gradually eliminated types of no com- 
mercial value, until in the last season not only were discards practically 
mil, but the value and quality of the selected seedlings were equal to 
those of the best novelties of Huropean introduction. 
The great value of the system advocated by me is the fact that the 
success of breeding depends much upon the removal of every influence 
adverse to increased multiplication of advanced types. This will be 
appreciated by those workers on bulky plants and trees of slow maturing’ 
habit, requiring a large acreage for development, and the fact that I am 
speaking from an experience with nearly a million new hybrid gladioli, 
a plant that requires comparatively little space, although needing from 
