ON HEREDITY 
to become the parent of a new race of potatoes, 
it may be said that he was then fairly started on 
his successful career of plant improvement. 
Had he rested on his honors and been satisfied 
with this single new production, the world would 
always have been his debtor. 
For up to that time the potatoes of the world 
were small, more or less uncertain of bearing, and 
of mediocre yield. The older varieties—disregard- 
ing the fact that their yield was but one-fourth of 
the present production, would find no buyers in 
our markets. a, 
With the same work—indeed with less—both 
the pioneer who grew potatoes for his own 
sustenance and the potato specialist who produced 
his crop on a commercial basis, were able to 
quadruple their output—to make four measures 
of food—four measures of profit—grow where but 
one had grown before. 
And today, when more pounds of potatoes are 
grown than of any other food crop of the world, 
the increase made in a single year’s crop—the in- 
crease gained without any corresponding increase 
in capital invested or cost of production—amounts 
to an astounding sum in the millions. 
Possibly at no other time in the history of the 
nation could the Burbank potato have come more 
opportunely. 
[61] 
