24 An American Fruit- Farm 



farmer by mere knowledge. It is instinct that 

 keeps the race on the planet, — not new knowledge. 

 But as the agricultural college cannot make a 

 fruit-grower, no more can the medical school make 

 a doctor, the law school a lawyer, or the engineer- 

 ing school an engineer. It is the man himself, 

 not the school. The diploma is only a certificate 

 that he passed the college way. But knowledge 

 must be the capital and resource of most men ; the 

 genius among farmers is rare. Luther Burbank 

 is unique, but he can set thousands of lesser men to 

 work improving varieties: to produce paper-shell 

 and other walnuts; to improve oats, wheat, and 

 barley; to reclaim the deserts with cactus; to 

 improve flax, hemp, and cotton; to increase the 

 yield of clover, timothy, and alfalfa; to improve 

 peas, beans, and tomatoes; to add even a better 

 potato than the Burbank; to better all kinds of 

 berries; to improve grapes; to work out perfect 

 pltims, apples, prunes, without seeds; to make 

 quinces delicious raw and to double the productive- 

 ness of the cherry ; to improve the pear, — in brief, 

 he can tell posterity how to apply his methods and 

 discoveries and thus to increase immeasurably the 

 world^s supply of food. Men by knowledge can 

 learn to carry on what he began with instinct. 

 The agricultural college, like any other training 

 school, helps plain people learn how to make a 

 living. There is only one kind of scientific work. 

 There is only one scientific method in fruit-farming. 

 There are different approaches to this method. 



