CLASSIFICATION OF HYBRIDS. 31 



W. M. Hays: If we had a central place, as the Department of Agriculture, for 

 keeping these records and having them put into accessible form, the records could easily 

 be gotten from such men as this gentleman, who has had so much experience; not per- 

 haps by writing, but by verbal statements compiled by men in the department. Many 

 of those things could be compiled and in the end would be useful. As things are the 

 records are apt to die with these men. 



L. H. Bailey: Our Department of Agriculture, aside from its experimental work, 

 is for the purpose of acting as a clearing house of experience. It might be well to take 

 an expression of this conference before we close as to whether or no it would be useful 

 for such records to be kept at that place. 



The Chair: It is entirely proper for this conference to give expression to a matter 

 of this kind, and doubtless it would receive due consideration from the Department 

 of Agriculture. I understand the proposition to be that a bureau of statistics of experi- 

 mental work should be maintained. After all, this is a very old thing. The world from 

 the beginning has been doing work over and over and over again in every department 

 of knowledge, and the general idea has been that in this experience of each investigator, 

 and of each generation, following another, real good has come, although there has been a 

 very great deal of waste in it. But it is hardly worth while for an investigator who is 

 maKing scientific investigations, when a thing has been demonstrated conclusively, to 

 throw his life away on that line of work. And, on the other hand, if it is found that 

 certain things can be done in a given line, it may be important for that fact to be known 

 to future workers. 



W. M. Hays: There are here from the Department of Agriculture two gentlemen 

 who have worked particularly along this line, and I don't know that any expression is 

 needed. They will get the point, I am sure, and will work it up in practice. 



The Chair: Perhaps the desire will be sufficiently attained by the suggestion that 

 is made. Possibly those two members of the department who are here will give some 

 attention to it as to its practicability. 



J. B. Norton: We have been and are still carrying out in an index as full a record 

 as we can get of published literature. As fast as it comes in, and as fast as we get the 

 opportunity to do it, it is indexed, and in such a way that we can get at the subject 

 and the author. In this way we are gradually accumulating a fair index of what has 

 been published. But, of course, all that is done and not published has to remain outside 

 of that index, except as we can get it from letters. The letters that come into the 

 Plant Breeding Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture are indexed when anything 

 of importance is found in them. This work has to be done in spare moments, and the 

 spare moments of a plant breeder's time are few; and the thing is growing, particularly 

 in the summer time, when most of us are busy at work all the time; but in the winter 

 we have usually two or three clerks devoted to this kind of work. In that way the index 

 is growing. Of course, on this basis it would be fairly easy to compile anything that v^as 

 furnished by the different plant breeders in the country, and with the addition of one 

 person whose time was devoted more or less to the bibliography very much of value 

 could be added. We have not that person now on the force, but with increased appro- 

 priations that is one of the things that will come. 



O. F. Cook: Mr. President, did I understand Mr. Bailey to suggest that the sense 

 of the meeting be taken on this matter? 



The Chair: The Chair understood that to be Professor Bailey's suggestion. 



L. H. Bailey: I merely threw out the suggestion as to whether that was worth 

 while. I don't know that it is necessary to put the matter in the form of a resolution. 



O. F. Cook: It seems to me, Mr. President, that some formulated resolution of the 

 meeting which was sent to the Secretary of Agriculture might at least be of some assist- 

 ance in bringing about proper provision for the work which Mr. Norton has just men- 

 tioned. Some systematic index of these plant hybrids could in that way be easily kept. 

 But if the resolution should include a recommendation to include all classes of miscel- 

 laneous information about hybrids it would, I think, be such a colossal task — possibly 

 not at the beginning, but in the course of a few years — that the scheme would break 

 down. An index of hybrids produced, with notes as to their parentage, could, I think, be 

 very easily kept in the Department, and a resolution to that effect should be good. 



The Chair: Would Mr. Bailey be willing tc take this matter under consideration 



