THE CREATION OF NEW TREES 



possible to produce trees at will for practi- 

 cally any purpose, for ornamentation, for 

 shade, for fuel, for manufacturing purposes; 

 to breed together trees from widely separated 

 quarters of the globe, each having some de- 

 sirable characteristic the other has not, uniting 

 the best of both in the child of the two, and 

 then selecting and selecting through a series 

 of years until the desired end is reached. 

 Hardiness, longevity, rapidity of growth, sym- 

 metry of form, adaptability, all play their 

 part, all may be called upon to act at the 

 proper moment. Mr. Burbank has given deep 

 thought to this branch of breeding, realizing 

 the vast importance to the world in any suc- 

 cessful plan for maintaining and increasing its 

 tree life. Upon this point he says: 



"The possibilities of improvement in trees 

 are so great as to make it seem almost an ex- 

 aggeration to state them. Trees may be bred 

 together within certain specific limits, to pro- 

 duce other trees of different character at will, 

 combining the characters of the parents or 

 developing wholly new ones. In human life 

 pre-natal influences are marvelously powerful 

 and extraordinarily diverse, and the spiritual 



57 



