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A CEREAL BREEDER AND EX -FORESTER'S EVALUATION OF THE 

 PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS LNYOL\ED IN BREEDING 

 RUST RESISTANT FOREST TREES: 

 MODERATOR'S SUMMARY 



Norman E. Borlaug 

 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and 

 Rockefeller Foundation, Mexico, D.F. Mexico 



As a moderator of the panel "Breeding Schemes for Mass Production 

 of Forest Trees," it is my responsibility to summarize and comment on 

 the various papers that have been given during this session. However, 

 since I am also by chance the moderator of this final formal session of 

 the NATO-IUFRO Advanced Study Institute you have left yourselves vulner- 

 able to a general harangue which will touch on a number of different 

 aspects of the overall forest genetics and breeding programs, which have 

 been presented this past week. 



Four years ago, when I was invited to participate in the NATO-N.S.F. 

 Symposium at Pennsylvania State University - after more than 20 years 

 without contact with forestry - I was very favorably impressed by the 

 vast amount of information that had been obtained and the progress that 

 had been made toward the development of improved varieties or strains of 

 Pinus and Populus spp. This week I have been even more impressed by the 

 reports on progress since the last meeting. The first tangible results 

 of the forest tree breeding programs are beginning to make their first 

 commercial impact on southern pine pulpwood production. The Pinus 

 monticola Dougl. white pine blister rust resistance breeding program is 

 approaching the pay-off stage. 



I have been greatly impressed also during the past five days by the 

 high quality of the research reported from the disciplines of genetics, 

 entomology, pathology, epidemiology, physiology, ecology, and taxonomy. 

 Such work lays the foundations upon which your breeding programs must 

 be built. 



I take this opportunity to congratulate all of you on the tremendous 

 progress already achieved. However, I urge you all to discard your 

 modesty and conservatism and recognize the importance of the work which 

 you are doing, not only for its direct effect on increasing the produc- 

 tion of wood and fiber, but for its indirect effects on our total 

 environment, i.e., watershed, soil conservation, wildlife, and recreation 

 The time has arrived to establish clearly before governments, private 

 industries (especially those utilizing forest products) , and the general 

 public the present and potential contributions of forest tree breeding 

 programs to the welfare of the general public. Only through an aggres- 

 sive approach of this type can forest genetics hope to obtain the 

 financial support it must have to carry out its important work. 



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