268 LUTHER BURBANK 



in any given flower or fruit or vegetable com- 

 bined in just the desired proportion in any single 

 seedling selected at random, stands about the 

 same chance of having his expectations grati- 

 fied that you have of spelling out the word 

 "evolution" correctly with blocks drawn at 

 random? 



But it is obvious that your chance of successful 

 drawing of the blocks would increase in propor- 

 tion as the number of attempts you are permitted 

 to make increases. 



So would the plant experimenter's chance of 

 finding several desired qualities of his fruit or 

 flower combined in just the right proportion 

 increase somewhat in proportion to the number 

 of seedlings among which he can select. 



Yet I suppose the mathematician would assure 

 us that the number of attempts you must make 

 with the blocks before you could hope, according 

 to the theory of chances, to bring out all the 

 letters in just the right sequence would be so 

 large as to tax your patience beyond endurance 

 and I can testify that the same thing holds true 

 with regard to the experiment of the plant de- 

 veloper. Though he had thousands of seedlings 

 among which to choose he is not likely to find 

 any one in a given fraternity that fully meets 

 his ideal. 



