376 LUTHER BURBANK 



The aggregate status of the population of the 

 plant colonies at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol 

 to-day has probably not more greatly changed 

 from the status of the colonies of 1886 than has 

 the average status of the American race changed 

 in the same period. 



Doubtless it would be impossible for any- 

 one to gauge accurately the precise character 

 of the modifications in one case or the 

 other. 



But in general terms it may safely be affirmed 

 that the members of the plant colonies have vastly 

 improved in the sense that they have been modi- 

 fied as to leaf or flower or fruit in such ways as 

 to make them better adapted to meet the needs 

 and tastes and desires of men. 



Whether the crossbred population of America 

 has been similarly improved in its average 

 adjustment to the needs of a highly evolved 

 social environment is a question that we shall not 

 attempt to decide. 



Here, as before, it suffices to point out the 

 conditions and to suggest analogies with the 

 crossbred plant colonies; but here also we must 

 not overlook the fact that the plant developer's 

 privilege of weeding out the unfit members of 

 his hybrid colony may change the entire com- 

 plexion of the situation. 



