PLANT BREEDING AS A PRACTICAL PURSUIT. 3I5 



In any line of work there must be a certain remuneration. This 

 may come in the form of dollars and cents ; it may come in the form 

 of gratification ; it may come in a form offering a goodly portion of 

 both and be followed by a reputation which carries with it confidence 

 and respect. Plant breeding is no exception to this, but offers much 

 in the way of interest and encouraging returns. As a practical pur- 

 suit it has proven itself worthy of any man's thought and attention, 

 either for profit or pleasure. The results which may be attained 

 are directly proportioned to the energy expended. Every individual 

 possesses an inherited tendency toward certain characters which 

 come to it either with full vigor or impaired by neglect or by un- 

 avoidable conditions. These characters are transmitted to the pro- 

 geny, and thus the handing down from generation to generation is of 

 full measure with always a greater tendency toward deterioration 

 than toward improvement. The hidden possibilities are always pres- 

 ent, however, and require only the effort of the systematic breeder to 

 discriminate between the desirable and undesirable and to bring out 

 the desirable ones and keep them uppermost in generations to come. 

 To those who visited the World's Fair at St. Louis and saw the 

 hundreds of hybrid and selected gladioli, it was manifestly evident 

 that Prof. Groff had brought out characters that seemed next to im- 

 possible. Hybridizing with him has passed from an art to a science. 

 He can tell with almost absolute certainty what the progeny will be 

 when he unites the characters of two known individuals. Bur- 

 bank, the originator of the famous Burbank potato, is equally skillful 

 in his work and has accomplished wonders by studying and breeding 

 many of the horticultural plants. 



Mr. Gideon through persistent effort was awarded the well 

 known Wealthy apple. Though the seed was one among a very 

 great number and the tree one of many millions grown with a view 

 to bettering the Minnesota apple condition, the Wealthy stands by 

 itself today a monument to Mr. Gideon, and to have produced it was 

 to him most gratifying. The state owes much to Mr. Gideon and as 

 recognition of this good work should at all times welcome such 

 honest endeavor. 



Plant breeding today is not practiced as it was a few years ago. 

 People have made it a study and have devised methods that have 

 made it possible to find those plants or sexual parts the intrinsic 

 values of which as parents or foundation stocks are superior to any 

 of the many individuals or parts thereof which are taken into account 

 in the competition. The rediscovering of Mendel's law has added 

 new impetus to the work and assurance to the fixing of the types 



