LUTHER BURBANK 
are giving us. Yet such a transformation is one 
which might be easily wrought in a few years 
through simple selection, and serves, here, to 
illustrate the vast range of possibilities in plant 
improvement which only wait willing hands and 
active minds to turn them into realization. 
Immediate possibilities for plant improvement, 
indeed, outnumber the improvements which have 
already been wrought, ten thousand to one. 
It is planned in these books to treat of the 
possibilities of each plant separately, in connection 
with the description of the work which has 
already been done, since each of Mr. Burbank’s 
improvements not only suggests countless other 
improvements which he has not had the time to 
take up, but indicates, in a measure, the method 
by which their accomplishment may be brought 
about. 
It may be well, at this point, however, to 
survey, roughly, the range of possibilities for 
improvement, so that, as we go along, we may 
have an appreciative eye for the value of the 
things which are clamoring to be done. 
The incident of the pectic acid is but one of 
many unexpected improvements which Mr. Bur- 
bank has discovered in his productions after his 
first object has been achieved. 
[246] 
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