A VISIT TO LUTHER BURBANK. 345 



this goes on every year ; fourteen or fifteen such bonfires a year are not 

 uncommon. One consisting of 10,000 to 15,000 roses, luxuriantly 

 flowering seedlings, annihilated the work of a number of years after 

 the selection of only three good varieties. Half a million lily bulbs 

 were entirely destroyed after fifty of the best had been separated for 

 further cultivation. And so I could cite a number of instances. 



It is evident that the chance of finding something good is much 

 greater if the selection can be made from hundreds of thousands in- 

 stead of from a few hundred only. Those who wish to compete with 

 Burbank will have to accept this principle, and if this can not be done, 

 they had better follow a different method and select species that admit 

 the use of different methods. 



It is theoretically of great interest to compare Burbank's principle 

 with the methods of selecting generally in vogue in Europe. There the 

 work is not performed on such a large scale. Preference is given to 

 repeated selections, and the idea is prevalent that the desired results 

 can be reached only by following the regular road. The question is 

 whether by such repeated selection we proceed faster than by a single 

 sowing on a larger scale. "We can easily calculate the proportion, and 

 it can be said that with five years' work a hundred times smaller num- 

 ber of plants have to be cultivated. This would, of course, lessen the 

 expenses in proportion, but there is always the disadvantage of the 

 result being available so much later. 



When novelties are wanted in varieties of Begonias, Geraniums, 

 Dahlias or Fuchsias, for instance, which annually produce many new 

 forms, the hastening process would be of no value, but in new genera 

 unexpected results are often attained, and in that case the hastening 

 method will amply repay the expense. Yet these questions are the 

 secrets of breeders. Of scientific importance is the question whether 

 repeated selections are alone sufficient to bring about the same end, 

 and further if by this means more variations are produced. 



We have no facts which would decide this, and I would not have 

 brought up the question, had it not been for its great influence on the 

 study of evolution. It is closely connected with the question whether 

 species slowly merge into one another or whether they originate by 

 mutations. In the former case small deviations would increase in the 

 course of generations, and thus a long series of intermediate forms 

 would connect the new and the old species. In the latter case a jump 

 is made without any intermediate stages. So long as there were not 

 sufficient instances of this mode of change, and so long as we had to 

 rely upon cultivated varieties only as proof, the first proposition was 

 naturally the most probable. It rested on experience in agriculture 

 and horticulture in regard to improvements of races, and it was be- 

 lieved that species in nature originated in the same manner. The re- 



