LUTHER BURBANK 
material was poured—a costly structure in itself 
which was put up only to be torn down. 
“We can not call this wooden structure extray- 
agance or waste, because it was a necessary step 
in the completion of the work. And so, while, 
in nature, we find: many individuals which are 
weak—many steps which look lke backward 
steps instead of forward ones—many apparent 
oversights, yet I prefer to believe, and my own 
work has shown me that this is true, that these 
are simply elements in a necessary scheme of 
false construction, without which the final object 
could not be achieved. 
“The price of all progress is experiment; suc- 
cessful experiment is brought about, always, at 
a terrific expense of individual failures. 
“But who shall say that progress, any progress, 
is not worth all it costs?” 
Nature gets one success out of a million tries: 
Mr. Burbank has gotten one out of forty. The 
figures may not be exact, but the basic fact 
underlying them is none the less important. 
It was simply by eliminating steps and pro- 
viding short-cuts, and bringing the human mind 
with its ideals, will, judgment and persistence into 
the environment of the African daisy that we were 
able to produce a pink one in a few months when, 
[192] 
