98 LUTHER BURBANK 



Building an ideal plant of any kind is like 

 building a house. Each must be planned in ac- 

 cordance with a clearly conceived idea. But 

 there is this great difference : In the case of the 

 plant you must wait for nature to supply you 

 with the material with which to build. 



Plant building is architecture but architec- 

 ture with limitations. It is always slow and very 

 often it is extremely disappointing, yet it has its 

 encouraging surprises as well. Times without 

 number I have been ready to give up an attempt 

 to secure an improvement on which I had worked 

 unsuccessfully for years, when, just as patience 

 was at the breaking point, nature would seem 

 to have a generous mood and, as it were, throw 

 the desired characteristic into my lap. 



What the blue print means to the architect, the 

 conception of the tree or fruit or flower wanted 

 should mean to the plant improver. It 

 represents a precise ideal toward which to 

 work, and it gives standards of comparison 

 by which progress may be checked as the work 

 progresses. 



In the case of the plum it is possible to present 

 the ideal to the mind with great accuracy. Of 

 course it may not be possible to attain results 

 strictly in accordance with the plan. But usually 

 the ideal may be at least approximated if it has 



