468 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE INTERNATIONAL PLANT-BREEDING 

 CONFERENCE. 



PROF. N. E. HANSEN, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, BROOKINGS, SOUTH 



DAKOTA. 



Two years ago in London there was held the first International 

 Conference on Plant Breeding and Hybridization. The meeting 

 was so successful, that it was determined by the recently organized 

 Horticultural Society of New York to hold the next international 

 conference in the United States. This was done September 30th, 

 and October ist and 2nd, 1902, at the Berkeley Lyceum building, 

 in the rooms of the American Institute of Art and Science, in the 

 city of New York. The writer had the privilege of attending every 

 session of the -conference by authority from the Regents of Educa- 

 tion of South Dakota, and it was indeed a great privilege. More 

 than fifty papers were presented in full or by title. There were 

 delegates present from England, the West Indies, Jamaica, Canada 

 and various parts of the United States. Papers were sent from 

 Ireland, Scotland, Austria, Holland and France. It is impossible 

 to give a brief synopsis of the many valuable papers presented, 

 many of which were too technical and scientific in their character 

 to admit of a popular synopsis. The storm center of discussion 

 during the whole conference was about Mendel's law of heredity 

 and De\'ries' theory of mutation of species. These two seem to 

 mark an epoch in the history of plant and animal breeding. It is 

 generally thought that had Darwin known of Mendel's discoveries, 

 he would have changed some of his theories. 



Mendel was an abbot in Moravia, Austria, and in the gardens of 

 his monastery carried on a series of elaborate experiments, perfect 

 in conception and execution. They have been verified since by other 

 workers. The theory was presented in an obscure publication some 

 thirty-five years ago, but for some unaccountable reason was ne- 

 glected until brought to light in 1900 by two or three investigators 

 w^orking independently. The following paragraph is quoted from 

 Mendel's introductory remarks : 



"Experiments in artificial fertilization, such as is effected with 

 ornamental plants in order to obtain new variations in color, have led 

 to the experiments which will be here discussed. The striking 

 regularity with which the same hybrid forms always reappear when- 

 ever fertilization takes place between the same species induced fur- 

 ther experiments to be undertaken, the object of which was to follow 

 up the development of the hybrids in their progeny. To this object 

 numerous careful observers, such as Kolreuter, Gartner, Herbert, 

 Lecoq, Wichura and others, have devoted a part of their lives with 



