416 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 689 



Some seeds distributed have already de- 

 veloped new varieties as good as, or better 

 than, the strains from which they came. 

 Second, the committee cooperates in syn- 

 thetic breeding— where a certain foreign 

 variety or species is needed to secure a cer- 

 tain desired combination a man will be sent 

 abroad to get the required species. 



Mr. Jouett Shouse, of Lexington, Ky., 

 read a paper on "Improvement of the 

 American Thoroughbred Horse." He 

 traced the history of the thoroughbred in 

 America from "Bull Rock" imported to 

 Virginia from England in 1730. The de- 

 velopment of the thoroughbred was bound 

 up with that of racing which was exten- 

 sively practised from the revolution until 

 the civil war; racing stimulated the 

 breeding of race horses. Since the war 

 racing in the South has languished except 

 at the larger cities, but in the North it has 

 developed, and to-day the thoroughbred 

 is the best it has ever been. Breeding 

 thoroughbreds is an industry worth many 

 millions of dollars and supporting many 

 thousands of people; the industry is cen- 

 tered in Kentucky owing to its favorable 

 climate and soil. The thoroughbred is the 

 foundation of the saddle horse and the 

 standard bred, but the former has more of 

 the thoroughbred than the latter. The 

 great value of the thoroughbred is for 

 crossing with farm mares; the product is 

 the best kind of generally useful horse. 

 The speaker opposed anything which would 

 interfere with horse-racing as bound to 

 discourage breeding the thoroughbred and 

 was led to the conclusion that the elimina- 

 tion of gambling from racing would, by 

 diminishing the interest in racing, have 

 this effect. 



Mr. Robert N. Sewall, of Oyster Bay, N. 

 Y., gave an illustrated address on the 

 "Origin of the Modern Horse and his Re- 

 lationship to the Arabian." He spoke of 

 the dual origin of the horse from the cold- 



blooded northern horse (Przewalski's 

 horse) and the hot-blooded Lybian horse 

 from which the Arabian has been imme- 

 diately derived. He showed how the 

 northern horse had been improved by cross- 

 ing with the Arabian to get our best races 

 and entered a plea for the further develop- 

 ment of the Ai'abian in order further to 

 improve our thoroughbred and standard- 

 bred types. 



Mr. C. J. Jones spoke about his work of 

 breeding and hybridizing the American 

 bison, and the successful attempt to 

 make a hardier hybrid. He referred to the 

 necessity of using large cows as mothers 

 on account of the great amount of amniotic 

 fluid surrounding the embryo. He also 

 spoke of his hybrids with Persian sheep 

 which attain a weight of nearly 300 pounds 

 and whose mutton is of superior quality. 



Dr. Alexander Graham Bell spoke for 

 the Committee of Eugenics. His paper 

 has been published in The National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine. 



Many other papers, mostly based on the 

 breeding of plants, were presented on 

 Wednesday and Thursday, including re- 

 ports of the committees on breeding forest 

 and nut trees by Dr. Pinchot; tobacco, 

 by A. D. Shamel; bush and small fruit, 

 by Professor Hansen; corn, by Mr. J. D. 

 Funk and Dr. ShuU. On Thursday after- 

 noon the association was received by 

 President Roosevelt. 



The following officers were elected for 

 the year: 



President — Hon. James Wilson, Washington, 

 D. C. 



Vice-president — C. W. Ward, Queens, N. Y. 



Secretary — W. M. Hays, Washington, D. C. 



Treasurer — N. H. Gentry, Sedalia, Mo. 



Chairman Animal Section — A. P. Grout, Win- 

 chester, 111. 



Secretary Animal Section — 0. B. Davenport, 

 Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y. 



Chairman Plant Section — H. J. Webber, Ithaca, 

 N. Y. 



