ON VARIATION 
settled down to the steady task of reproducing 
their kind exactly as it is, depending only on 
individual environment for individuality, and 
ensuring reproduction by self pollenation. 
We should see plants in all stages of their 
attempts to keep their kind on the upward trend; 
we should see a range of ingenuity so great that 
no man, no matter how many of his days have 
been devoted to the study of plants and their ways, 
can ever become dulled to its wonders. 
“I bought some extremely expensive seed corn 
several years back,” complained a Santa Rosa 
farmer. “But, just as I expected, it ran down. 
The first year’s corn was fine, and so was the 
second; but now it has gone clear back to ordinary 
corn. This plant improvement doesn’t pay.” 
“Do you know how corn reproduces itself?” 
asked Mr. Burbank. 
“Do you realize that if you plant good corn on 
one side of a fence, and inferior corn on the other, 
the corn cannot see the fence? 
“Would you expect that a cross between a race 
horse and some family dobbin would produce a 
line of racers? 
“Separate your good corn from your poor, 
and keep it by itself, and you will find that it does 
not run down, but even gradually improves.” 
[89] 
