INTRODUCTION 299 



The aim of the foregoing review has been to present the more promi- 

 nent historical examples of the four general methods of plant breeding. 

 Further details can be obtained from the authors cited and from Fru- 

 wirth's Die Zuchtung der landwirtschaftlichen Kulturpflanzen (The Breed- 

 ing of Agricultural Crop Plants). This useful work, consisting of five 

 volumes, is partly in its second and third revised editions and is the most 

 complete and thorough treatise on plant-breeding methods. 



Organization of Plant-breeding Work. Growing appreciation of the 

 importance of plant improvement to agriculture has led to organized 

 effort along certain lines, some of which are discussed briefly below. 



Seed and Plant Introduction. The first teacher of plant breeding in 

 America was also her first agricultural explorer. In 1882 Budd went to 

 Europe and Asiatic Russia for the purpose of studying horticultural 

 problems. He was accompanied by Thero Gibbs of Canada, and the 

 expedition was financed by the Iowa State Legislature and the Canadian 

 Government. As a result of this exploration many hardy shrubs and 

 trees were introduced into America. The Russian cherries and apples 

 were of especial importance as they have been used, notably by Saunders 

 and Hansen, in the production of new varieties, which are sufficiently 

 hardy to resist the cold winters of the northwest portion of the great 

 interior plain. Bailey, in 1894, called attention to the similarity in 

 climates and floras of eastern America and eastern Asia and emphasized 

 the "abundant reason for looking toward oriental Asia for further 

 acquisitions, either in other species or in novel varieties." His wise 

 foresight in this matter has received repeated verification in the numerous 

 valuable introductions of Wilson and of Meyer. About this time the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture began to give serious attention to the intro- 

 duction of seeds and plants from foreign countries under the supervision 

 of Galloway. A few years later this important work was put in charge 

 of Fairchild who has organized the present efficient system of agricultural 

 exploration, seed and plant introduction, trial gardens and distribution 

 of promising material. 



Collections of Plant-breeding Material. The importance of bringing 

 together a working collection of all available species and varieties within 

 a group in which improvement is desired has been increasingly appreci- 

 ated since the work of Vilmorin. The importance of local variety trials 

 has long been realized and the collections of cultivated varieties at various 

 experiment stations have proven very useful for purposes of selection of 

 better adapted sorts as well as for some work in hybridization. Well- 

 known examples are the sweet pea, peony, and chrysanthemum collec- 

 tions at Cornell University and the collections of apples, plums, and 

 grapes at the Geneva, N. Y., Experiment Station. But, on account of the 

 time and expense involved in the work of hybridization, it is highly im- 



