SELECTIVE EVOLUTION 229 



So we see that, while nature might eventually 

 produce the things which we hasten her to pro- 

 duce, yet the improvements would find them- 

 selves in competition with the failures which 

 they cost, the failures outnumbering the improve- 

 ments, perhaps, a million to one. We see that 

 we not only shorten the process, not only achieve 

 a result out of every thousand failures instead of 

 every ten million, but we give our product the 

 advantage of a better chance to live we remove 

 from it the necessity of fighting its inferiors 

 for the food, and air, and sunlight which give 

 it life. 



This, then, is the story of the making of a new 

 cherry to fit an ideal: 



First, selection of the elements; second, com- 

 bining these elements; third, bringing these com- 

 binations to quick bearing; fourth, selecting one 

 out of the five hundred; and then, selection, on 

 and on. 



These, after all, are but details in the process 

 minor details, in fact. 



The big element, overtowering them in im- 

 portance, is selection. 



First, the selection of an ideal, then the selec- 

 tion of the elements which are to be blended to 

 achieve it, then the selection of the resultant 

 plant, end after that the selection of better and 



