104 City Homes on Country Lanes 



must rise with the growing abundance and quality of 

 the products of the earth. Go farther still, and you 

 will see how better living means better people; how 

 larger and more profitable production mean that less 

 land will serve the individual or family hence, smaller 

 holdings ; how this, in turn, means more neighbors, 

 better housed, fed and clad, and how that condition 

 tends toward closer and higher social relationships. 



When you have seen all this, you have but crossed the 

 doorstep of Luther Barbank's intellectual empire. Be- 

 yond, in the vast interior, lies the domain of his influence 

 that only may be characterized in terms of spiritual 

 thought and action. Our dream of man as co-creator 

 with God comes true. We stand erect, conscious of 

 our Divine partnership. We accept nothing from Na- 

 ture as finality. All is subject to change, to endless im- 

 provement. We are to make the earth ever better and 

 richer, more productive, and, hence, more profitable. 

 The forces of evolution lie in our own hands. 



I have searched Mr. Burbank's writings for the best 

 word to express the reach and splendor of his vision. 

 But there is no best word. He must be studied as a 

 whole. To apprehend him even measurably one must 

 stand in his presence, as gentle as that of the poet 

 Whittier and as spiritual as Emerson's. But perhaps 

 the following quotations will help: 



"The vast possibilities of plant-breeding can hardly 

 be estimated. It would not be difficult for one man 

 to breed a new rye, wheat, barley, oats, or rice which 

 would produce one grain more to each head, or a corn 

 which would produce an extra kernel to each ear, an- 



