54 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Passing now to a more direct discussion of the subject in hand, I 

 have to say that I have chosen to discuss three general means of 

 developing the latent possibilities in the plant-kingdom for agri- 

 culture. It may help to hold your attention if I discuss these in 

 order of their importance — the most important last. They are: 

 First, the domestication of the native plants of any region. Second, 

 better distribution of plants now cultivated. Third, the utilization 

 of hybridization to bring into being new types of plants better suited 

 to cultivation and to the uses of man. 



In the matter of domesticating plants let us glance hastily at 

 what has and what can be done in our own country. In De 

 Candolle's treatise we make but a poor showing, indeed. Out of 

 his 247 cultivated species but 45 are accredited to the New World, 

 and but three of these — the pumpkin, Jerusalem artichoke and 

 persimmon — come from North America. To these three, Sturte- 

 vant adds about thirty. The poor showing made by our continent 

 in furnishing food plants, it must be made plain, is not due to origi- 

 nal inferiority. The number would be vastly greater, as Asa Gray 

 long ago pointed out, had civilization begun in this rather than in 

 the Old World. It is probable, indeed, that the numbers would 

 be approximately equal if civilization had begun as early in the 

 Western as in the Eastern Hemisphere. 



What are some of these plants that Gray and other botanists 

 have so often told us might have been and may yet profitably be 

 domesticated? The list is far too long to catalogue, but you will 

 permit me time for a few examples, choosing those that are still 

 worth domesticating for some special purpose or environment. 

 Fruits give us most examples. 



Wild fruits abound in North America. The continent is a 

 natural orchard. More than 200 species of tree, bush, vine and 

 small fruits were commonly used by the aborigines for food, not 

 counting nuts, those occasionally used, and numerous rarities. 

 In its plums, grapes, raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, cran- 

 berries and gooseberries North America has already given the 

 world a great variety of new fruits. There are now under cultiva- 

 tion 11 American species of plums, of which there are 433 pure- 

 bred and 155 hybrid varieties; 15 species of x\merican grapes with 

 404 pure and 790 hybrid varieties; 4 species of raspberries with 280 



