LAWS OF INHERITANCE PUT TO USE 31 



In addition he has transformed the plum and has made a 

 combined fruit from the plum and the apricot. He has taken 

 the old-fashioned wild daisy of New England, has combined 

 it with daisies from Japan and England, and has secured the 

 lovely Shasta daisy, .which has no rival. He has taken dif- 

 ferent species of cacti, has crossed them carefully, and has 

 secured varieties so free from thorns that they are a boon to 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLUM 



The two larger ones are seedlings of the other two. (From " New Creations in 

 Plant Life," by W. S. Harwood. Published by The Macmillan Company) 



man and beast alike. Other so-called " spineless " cacti were 

 already in existence, but government reports tell us that 

 these are " all more or less spiny." Mr. Burbank's varieties, 

 however, are so free from spines that, according to Dr. D. S. 

 Jordan, he had " upwards of 500 kinds of edible cactus in 

 1908." Each one was the result of laws of nature guided by 

 man. The same is true of changes brought about in animal 

 life. Take sheep, for example. Some are liked because they 

 are hornless, some for. the quality of mutton they supply, 

 some for the long, soft wool they grow. Knowing what was 



