216 LUTHER BURBANK 



To have produced a thornless race from them 

 was an interesting scientific achievement, but 

 one that at this stage had no very practical 

 significance. 



In order that the experiment should lead to 

 the practical results at which I aimed it was 

 necessary now to improve the fruit of these 

 thornless proteges. And, while something could 

 be done in this regard by mere selection in 

 which case, of course, there would be no danger 

 of having the plants backslide from a thornless 

 condition I soon found by experiment and ob- 

 servation that selection alone would be much too 

 slow and doubtful a method for the development 

 of such fruit as would be necessary to compete 

 with the highly developed blackberries already 

 in the market. 



For of course it could not be overlooked that 

 the ultimate purchaser is much more vitally in- 

 terested in the quality of fruit supplied him than 

 in a question of whether this fruit grew on a 

 thornless vine or on a brier brush. 



By the time I had reached the conviction that 

 it would be necessary to adopt a more energetic 

 procedure than mere selection in the education 

 of the thornless berries, I had acquired through 

 experience a very clear comprehension of the 

 methods that must be depended on to inculcate 



