INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PLANT 

 BREEDING AND HYBRIDIZATION 



The first session of the conference was called to order at ten o'clock A. 

 M. on Tuesday, September 30, 1902, by President James Wood of the Horti- 

 cultural Society of New York, who without formality opened the proceedings 

 and stated that the Horticultural Society had made arrangements for the pub- 

 lication of the proceedings of the conference, the contents of the volume to be 

 coprighted as a whole by the Society, but reserving to the authors exclusively 

 all rights in the papers which they present. 



The following paper was then read by W. Bateson, of Cambridge Uni- 

 versity, England ; 



PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE NEW DISCOVERIES 

 IN HEREDITY 



By W. Bateson, Cambridge University, England. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is impossible for me to begin 

 the serious discussion of these subjects without expressing the pleasure that I 

 feel in having this opportunity of addressing you. It is and must be always 

 c' great pleasure to a man who is engaged in a very special line of inquiry, as 

 breeding experiments are, to meet others who are engaged in such work, whose 

 thoughts are centred on the same problems as his own. Especially may I 

 welcome this opportunity of speaking here in the United States, where what 

 is being done in this line of inquiry is on a scale of comprehensiveness which 

 I may truly say far exceeds anything that is being done in any other country 

 in the world. We have only to glance at the publications of the agricultural 

 experiment stations to know what progress is being made in this line. Here 

 amid vast diversities of soil and climate the great resources of the States are 

 being applied to the elucidation of these problems, with the result that the 

 scope of the work carried on entirely surpasses that which is attempted by 

 other nations. It is therefore with especial satisfaction that I welcome the 

 opportunity of addressing those who in the United States are devoting them- 

 selves to the study of experimental breeding. 



In these studies we have reached a critical moment. That crisis, as it is 

 known to many of those present, has been brought about by the rediscovery 

 and confirmation of Mendel's work on heredity. These discoveries intimately 

 concern the art of the practical breeder, and I propose to use the present 

 opportunity to indicate some of the ways in which we can employ them for his 

 purposes. 



