80 LUTHER BURBANK 



it difficult for the germinating cells to make 

 their exit when the time comes for their de- 

 velopment. 



Thus these stone fruits conform to a great 

 familiar principle of nature. Their exceptional 

 covering has been developed by natural selection 

 to insure continuance of the species under natu- 

 ral conditions. 



But it is obvious that, now that man has taken 

 the plant under his care, the species will be 

 perpetuated with his aid, and hence the extraor- 

 dinary armor about the seed might well be dis- 

 pensed with. But as a matter of course the 

 plant cannot drop all at once a structure that 

 heredity and environment have worked thou- 

 sands of years to build up. 



Man cannot take the Indian and say to him: 

 "Be civilized," and expect him in a generation to 

 drop the tendencies that have become a part of 

 him through centuries of inheritance. 



The hunter cannot take the wolf and by treat- 

 ing him like a domesticated animal make a dog of 

 him in a single generation even though the an- 

 cestor of the dog was a wolf. And similarly 

 when the fruit grower takes the plum under his 

 protection, he cannot hope that this plant will 

 give up at once the protective device that has 

 served it so well in the long past. 



