ON HARNESSING HEREDITY 
be transformed merely by changing the environ- 
ments in which they grow.” 
“So they can,” replies Mr. Burbank, “if time is 
no object. But the quick and economical way is 
to take advantage of the combined environments 
of the past which are at our instant disposal; to 
short-cut to our result by using well established 
traits and thoroughly formed habits, rather than 
to spend the years or lifetimes which might be 
necessary to produce new traits and new habits 
from the beginning. 
“It is better to seek out, first, what nature has 
stored away for us, and then to use new environ- 
ments to improve or intensify traits and habits 
which already have the advantage of several 
centuries of start. 
“It is the same principle of economy which we 
apply to everything we do. 
“So long as there is plenty of coal within easy 
reach it does not pay us to build machines to 
utilize the energy of the sun’s rays or of the ocean 
tides. And, similarly, so long as there are untold 
thousands of plants embodying, in some form, 
almost every conceivable trait we might desire— 
untold thousands of plants like the cactus waiting 
only our attention to make them useful—we can 
hardly afford to waste time in doing what nature 
already, laboriously, has done.” 
[143] 
iti, 
