ON TIMBER TREES 
in its development are quite different from those 
in the development of annual plants. Yet some- 
thing of the probable results of an experiment can 
be judged even from observation of seedlings in 
their first year. And by hurrying the hybrid plants 
by the method of grafting, it will be possible 
greatly to shorten the generation. 
Still it is not to be denied that the work of 
developing new races of trees is one that should 
preferably command the attention of the younger 
generation. In particular, it should be carried on 
under government supervision, as part of the great 
work of re-forestration, the necessity for which 
has only in recent years been clearly realized by 
those in authority or by the community in general. 
MESSAGES FROM THE Past 
The oft-cited hybrid walnuts supply us with 
tangible evidence of the possibility of developing 
new races of trees having much-to-be-desired 
qualities of rapid growth, through hybridization 
of the existing species. 
Such evidence, as I have suggested, doubtless 
is more forceful and convincing than any amount 
of theoretical argument. But it may be of interest 
to support this evidence, and in so doing to reveal 
additional reasons for belief that the same princi- 
ples will apply to other forest trees, by recalling 
briefly the story of the vicissitudes through which 
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