220 THE COXXECTICUT P0M0L0GICAL SOCIETY. 



fore he has had them five years. To do that, calls for obser- 

 vation, care and study, but it is something which will pay. 

 We have as proof that a man can improve varieties by just 

 care in selection illustrated in a great many things in the 

 United States in the past few years. The cotton planters 

 in the south have been taught by Dr. Webber of Cornell. 

 that they can gather several thousand bales more of cotton 

 in the same area to-day than they could fifteen years ago. 

 One reason was that Dr. Webber, by selection, was able to 

 increase the length of the cotton fiber to a considerable ex- 

 tent, and in that way the planters have been enabled very 

 largely to increase their crop on the same area. Not only 

 is it true that we can by selection increase the productiveness 

 and value of our plants in that way. but we can select plants 

 that are disease resistant. We sometimes hear it said that 

 that is the business of the professional man. the expert who 

 makes that particular thing a special study. Well, that may 

 be true, to some extent, but I do not believe it altogether. I 

 believe that every man who has good eyes ought to be able 

 to select plants which are free from disease. Xo man ought 

 to select seed from a mother plant which is obviously in a 

 weak condition, or which shows characteristics which he does 

 not wish to propagate. They were troubled a great deal in 

 the south with wilted cotton, also with the wilting of the 

 cow-pea. and wilting of a great many plants. This has been 

 overcome by plant breeding, so that now we have plants 

 which will resist that wilt. Furthermore, we have blight re- 

 sisting plants. We have anthracnoses resisting plants. The 

 Cumberland black-cap raspberry is not nearly so likely to be 

 attacked by anthracnoses as many of the older varieties. The 

 variety has been bred to withstand the attack. We also have 

 begun to get asparagus which will resist disease. Experi- 

 ments have been tried in producing rust-resisting asparagus. 

 I was delivering a talk one time and a man asked me how 

 he could grow asparagus. After I had finished my talk, the 

 man cam- up to me and asked me how he could grow it 



