THE NEW EARTH 



several acres devoted to preliminary tests and, 

 in the case of many flowers, to final tests. At 

 Sebastopol are some seventeen acres of ground 

 where events move on a larger though not 

 more interesting scale. Here hundreds of 

 thousands of fruit trees, vines, shrubs and 

 plants of all descriptions are under test at the 

 same time. In all cases, the chief factors in the 

 work are breeding and selection, and here selec- 

 tion assumes its most important feature; for 

 often the best plant must be chosen by Mr. 

 Burbank out of ten thousand, indeed, out of 

 a hundred thousand, it may be. 



When the new plant has been grown for a 

 sufficient number of generations, so that it will 

 not go backward to some former inferior con- 

 dition, it is ready for the world. It has re- 

 ceived the final test, it has passed the last 

 examination, it is a full-fledged graduate with 

 this exception that, instead of beginning life 

 and learning the ways of the world, it has 

 been completely fitted for its service during 

 the years it has been in training. In order to 

 accomplish all that he has done, Mr. Burbank 

 has drawn heavily upon his physical resources ; 

 sometimes, indeed, he has made an overdraft 



126 



