DR. MORRIS: It is possible to determine the species but not the variety so far as I know. It may be possible to determine a variety but I don't know the extent to which that is possible, from microscopic examination of the pollen. If we wish to know whether pollen is still good or not we may in twenty-four or forty-eight hours cause it to "sprout," and in that way know whether it is viable and good. We may save ourselves a good deal of trouble by making this examination and determining whether or not a given lot of pollen is viable before putting it on the flowers. We can cause it to sprout in a sugar solution.
THE SECRETARY: What is the strength of the sugar solution?
DR. MORRIS: That is technical work and must be done by a plant physiologist. He will do it for us at the State Agricultural College and telegraph his report.
MR. DORR: Is this work you have outlined of sufficient definiteness to get results? That is the important thing. We farmers sometimes discover a plan accidentally that will outclass anything we can get in an agricultural college.
DR. MORRIS: That is very important. We are to produce nuts that are better, and also in greater quantities. The question if hybridizing work is valuable has been already answered in the case of roses and soft fruits. Our best types are largely the ones which have been secured by hybridization and the same will be true of nuts. The subject has not been so largely taken up as yet with nuts. Very few of us are doing with nuts what has been done with other fruits.
THE PRESIDENT: The chair wishes to say that the members of this association have a very great and rare opportunity to secure information on this subject. Dr. Morris has made a very careful study of it.
DR. MORRIS: The more study I make, the less I seem to know. Consequently I shall be very modest in my replies.
MR. DORR: I have been working with different things and find so many things I can't get at the truth. In the last year I have made experiments in breeding cattle to get colors, and I was agreeably surprised with my own success. I want to know if you can get similar results. I can observe the results so readily that I know exactly how I get them.
DR. MORRIS: As a general statement the same thing you get from working with animals we may expect to get in working with plants. The protoplasm of plants is now known to act like that of animals, but not quite so quickly or freely in response to cultural methods. We can breed to size and breed to quality and character of fruit, and we find we may do with plants just about what we do with animals, only not quite so quickly, because animal protoplasm responds more readily.