ON HURRYING EVOLUTION 
It was the same kind of observation as that 
which led to the production of a spineless cactus; 
the same keen eye for cause and effect which 
showed Luther Burbank a new theory of grafting 
—which opened the way to a practice which 
makes possible, comparatively, immediate results. 
Grafting close to the trunk gives the cion a 
better chance. 
“Give anything a good chance,” thought Mr. 
Burbank, “and it takes its own time to mature. 
“Take away that chance, and responding to 
the inborn tendency of every living thing to 
reproduce itself, it will hasten the process without 
waiting to accumulate strength. Therefore, if we 
graft away out at the tip ends of the tree, while 
we make it harder for the cions to exist, yet, in 
consequence, they will bear us quicker fruit. 
“Furthermore, if we graft close to the trunk 
we can, at best, attach but six, or eight, or a 
dozen cions. 
“But if we graft out at the tip ends, we can put 
five hundred cions on a single tree.” 
Grafting was nothing new; but it remained for 
Luther Burbank to learn the secret of producing, 
by means of it, five hundred different kinds of 
fruit on a single tree at the same time, so that a 
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