HOW MAY I DO IT TOO ; BREEDING 



ways, to change its habits, to break up old 

 traits, to make it more beautiful and more 

 useful, in a word, to handle and mold it as 

 the potter his clay, all this has in it a fasci- 

 nation beyond the conception of one who has 

 never entered upon such a course. 



Again he makes this point: That plant- 

 breeding for the amateur is one of the most 

 important aids to health. Plant-breeding and 

 selection can never be carried on at their best 

 save in the open. To be sure, there are tests 

 which may be begun, and some which may 

 largely be carried on, in the winter months 

 indoors, and these have their own peculiar 

 interest, but there is a large part of the year 

 in any temperate climate, and almost the 

 entire year in some portions of the country, 

 where the work of plant -breeding can be 

 carried on out-of-doors. It is in this outdoor 

 life that Mr. Burbank sees one of the greatest 

 goods that can possibly come to a man com- 

 pelled for a great portion of his time to an 

 indoor life. The plant-breeder, he maintains, 

 should have neither time nor inclination to 

 be sick. 



Highest of all his reasons for urging plant- 



245 



