THE PRESTDEXT's ADDRESS. 39 



corn from China that is pecuHar in its drought-resisting structure. 

 If we know an}'thing about the wild ancestry of corn, this Chinese 

 race has arisen from American stock ; and since the Chinese 

 records show that it was in cultivation at a time preceding the 

 "discovery of America" that we celebrate, it Ues outside the field 

 of a botanist to explain the method of its arrival in China. In 

 any event, its peculiarities are very striking, emphasizing the 

 divergent evolutionary results that may be obtained by the 

 geographical isolation of a single strain or of a few elementar>- 

 forms. The drought-resistant structure developed is of such an 

 order that it would not only insure corn crops against the occa- 

 sional untimely drought, but also would present the possibility of 

 extending the corn area into drier regions. 



But this again is only the vision of a possibility that lures the 

 plant breeder on to investigation. As in the case of the Pales- 

 tinian wheat, we are not breeding com for drought resistance 

 alone, and it will take many plant-generations of the highest type 

 of scientific plant-breeding to determine whether we can combine 

 this drought-resistant structure with the high grade quality and 

 yield we have obtained already in our cultures. 



In presenting these fleeting glimpses of the problems and the 

 accomplishment of plant-breeding, I have intended to emphasize 

 not only its fundamental importance to both biological science and 

 agricultural practice, but also the inextricable entanglement of the 

 two. Any result of scientific plant-breeding, representing as it 

 must additional knowledge of the processes of evolution and of 

 heredity, may become of practical serv'ice ; and any result of 

 practical plant-breeding, involving as it does extensive experi- 

 ments with plants, may prove to be of great scientific importance. 

 They are mutually stimulating, and both are necessary to the most 

 rapid development ol knowledge. 



It is the proper balance between the two that must be main- 

 tained. The physical needs of man. great as they may be, must 

 never obscure the intellectual needs of man, especially as the 

 trained intellect is the speediest agent in meeting physical need. 

 On the other hand, the intellectual needs of man, noble as they 

 may be, must never lose sight of the fact that the speediest results 

 are obtained by the enormous increase of experimental worlc 

 under the pressure of physical necessity. 



