272 LUTHER BURBANK 



But it must be fairly remembered that the 

 probability of success is enhanced if at any of 

 the earlier stages of the work you have 

 opportunity to select the best plant among a 

 large group instead of being restricted in choice 

 to a few individuals; just as the chance of 

 securing the block you seek in each successive 

 drawing increases with the number of tests you 

 are permitted. 



And, in point of fact, this, or something like 

 this, is the actual method in which the experi- 

 ments of the plant developer are carried out, 

 whenever he is attempting to construct a new 

 fruit or flower or vegetable having a number of 

 specified or clearly imagined qualities. In such 

 a case, the wise experimenter does not hope to 

 secure ideal results by a single combination; he 

 seeks to group desired qualities of his flower or 

 fruit together through successive crossings and 

 selections. Keeping one supreme quality in mind 

 and perhaps two or three others in the immedi- 

 ate background, he makes sure of first one and 

 then another of these qualities, adding to them 

 by successive crossings and selections* and thus, 

 although advancing, as it were by indirection, 

 and at first seeming to advance but slowly, he 

 may ultimately work with increasing certainty 

 and approach his goal somewhat rapidly. 



