364 LUTHER BURBANK 



the healthiest of all environments for the pro- 

 duction of improved examples of the human 

 plant. 



It is not meant to imply that the environment 

 of the city is necessarily unwholesome. But it 

 requires no argument to show that the average 

 city dweller is less favorably situated for the de- 

 velopment of normal children than is the average 

 dweller on farm or in country village. 



Children vitally need fresh air and sunlight 

 and the out-of-door life. 



They need to be allowed to romp in the fields 

 and to come in contact with nature. 



The city walls and pavements are a pitifully 

 inadequate substitute for the greensward and the 

 trees of the country. And a generation for which 

 this substitution has been made can hardly be ex- 

 pected to improve upon the traditions of its 

 parent generation. 



So the student of the human plant will do well 

 to give full attention to the question of improv- 

 ing the environment of the human colonies with 

 which he is concerned. 



The story has been told of the way in which the 

 soil of my experimental garden at Santa Rosa 

 was prepared and modified and even metamor- 

 phosed until the conditions were attained that 

 were favorable for the growth of my plant 



