THE PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 33 



production of hybrids. This term is used without reference to 

 the degree of relationship between the crossed individuals. They 

 may be merely different strains or they may be different species ; 

 in any event, the result is a hybrid progeny. The original pur- 

 pose of hybridizing was simply to multiply new forms and thus 

 to increase the range of selection. It was largely chance work, 

 and plants were crossed indiscriminately. So far as practical 

 plant-breeding was concerned, it simply increased the chances for 

 desirable results. So far as scientific plant-breeding was con- 

 cerned, it accumulated a large mass of facts in reference to the 

 possible range of crossing, the relative facility with which various 

 plants can be crossed, the general features of hybrids, etc. 



With increasing practical experience, and with a certain amount 

 of co-ordination of the scientific results, hybridizing gradually 

 became more definite and approximately precise. It was in devel- 

 oping this technique that plant-breeding was said to have passed 

 from chance to certainty. This claim sometimes took the more 

 picturesque form of statement, especially in connection with 

 floriculture, that one could order any kind of plant and the order 

 could be filled within a year. The technique of ordinary hybri- 

 dizing probably has been exemplified most fully in the opera- 

 tions of Burbank. 



The definiteness of highly developed hybridizing consists in the 

 purposeful combination of desirable characters. For example, 

 the size of the Lawton blackberry was combined with the whitish 

 color of a small native blackberr}-. The purpose and the process 

 were entirely definite, and the result was assured. That the unin- 

 formed may not be led astray, it should be said that the resultant 

 hybrids exhibit every combination of parental characters, and it 

 is only when these hybrids are produced by the thousands that 

 there will be any assurance that some one of them will possess 

 the desired combination. In this case, chance is reduced to cer- 

 tainty simply by multiplying the chances, A breeder handling 

 a few hundred plants may get his result, or he may not ; but one 

 handling thousands of plants may be sure of it. This multipli- 

 cation of chances to such an extent that the result is certain is 

 probably the principal reason for such success as Burbank has 

 had. It is needless to say that any control of combinations has 

 not come within the range even of scientific imagination. 



It ought to be understood, however, that in most cases hybri- 

 dization is a process that may put what may be called the finish- 



