93 



Coast Range, the great Central San Joaquin Valley and those 

 portions of the Sierra Nevadas in the neighborhood of the big 

 tree groves and the Yosemite Valley. Herbarium specimens 

 illustrating the flora of the different regions traversed were ex- 

 hibited and detailed descriptions of the different groves of big 

 trees were given. Four distinct forest belts were observed in 

 the Sierra Nevadas. On the higher foothills and up to 3,000 feet, 

 the "digger pine," Quercus Calif or nica and Acscuhts Californica 

 were the prevailing trees. From 3,000 feet to 6,000 feet are 

 found the groves of big trees, Sequoia Washingtonia and the 

 Douglass spruce, Psendotsuga mucronata. From 7,000 to 9,000 

 feet, occur Pice a grandis and Pinus contorta, and above 9,000 

 feet are Pinus albicans and Pinus aristata. 



Dr. H. J. Webber, of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, was present, and, at the request of the 

 Chairman, he consented to tell briefly of some of the work being 

 •done at the Laboratory for Plant Breeding, of which he is in 

 charge. He stated that at Washington, practical problems were 

 considered paramount and those of scientific interest only were 

 given secondary consideration. As illustrating the kind of 

 work that is being undertaken, he took the case of cotton. This 

 is by far the most important crop for most of the Southern states. 

 The ordinary upland varieties have a short staple averaging only 

 three fourths of an inch in length and a green woolly seed that 

 can only be removed by the use of the saw gin. On certain 

 limited areas near the coast, a sea-island cotton is grown having 

 a very fine fiber nearly two and a half inches long and a smooth 

 black seed that can be removed by a roller gin that does not 

 injure the staple. This is the finest cotton in the world, but the 

 boll is small and hard, making it hard to pick, the yield is light, 

 and the plant does not succeed on ordinary uplands. Numerous 

 crosses have been made in the hope of securing a cotton with 

 the long staple and smooth seeds of the sea-island combined with 

 the big round bolls, and the hardiness and productiveness of the 

 upland kinds. Out of over sixty thousand hybrids that have 

 been produced, twelve have been found that approach this ideal 

 type, and the effort is being made by continued selection to fix 



