NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



Generally speaking, however, those who have 

 carried it on have worked in small quarters, 

 perhaps in gardens or conservatories, usually 

 with comparatively few varieties. Mr. Bur- 

 bank early saw that this was slow work, that 

 it would take the years of many lifetimes to 

 accomplish what he had laid out before him. 

 The sending of telegrams was once confined 

 to a single message, one way, in one direction. 

 Even this was a wonderful thing, but it was 

 slow, and so there was devised a system of 

 sending many messages upon the single wire 

 in both directions at the same time. 



Some such transformation as this he has 

 wrought in plant-breeding. 



Instead of one or two experiments under 

 way at the same time, he may have five hun- 

 dred at once, all requiring constant supervi- 

 sion, many of them extending over a period 

 of perhaps ten years before they come to frui- 

 tion. Instead of having a few square feet of 

 ground or a few pots under glass, he uses 

 acres of ground, if necessary, in a single test. 

 In place of contenting himself with a half 

 dozen, or even fifty plants, in making a given 

 test, he uses if necessary a million, all of them 



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