LUTHER BURBANK 
legs of beetles and grasshoppers and the bones of 
toads and frogs. 
“Ts this not a more wonderful manifestation of 
old environment, recorded within a plant in the 
form of heredity, than even that of a bear which 
seemed to have inherited the intelligence and skill 
to fish?” 
“To my mind,” said one of the scientists, “the 
by-product of your work is fully as interesting as 
the work itself—the viewpoint which you get on 
the forces which control life is of even greater 
attraction to me than the wonderful productions 
which you have coaxed from the soil.” 
“A by-product, no,” said Mr. Burbank; “these 
things are a vital part of the day’s work. Heredity 
is more a factor in plant improvement than 
hoes or rakes; a knowledge of the battle of the 
tendencies within a plant is the very basis of all 
plant improvement. It is not, as you seem to think, 
that the work of plant improvement brings with 
it, incidentally, a knowledge of those forces. It 
is the knowledge of those forces, rather, which 
makes plant improvement possible.” 
“There are really, after all, only two main 
influences which enter into the make-up of life— 
only two influences which we need to direct, in 
[52] 
