Culture and the State 39 



plant which may not be susceptible to the influences of 

 culture. Of course we have not attempted them all ; in- 

 deed, we have tried extremely few, but these in variety 

 sufficiently to establish the principle. Of course, our 

 work in recent times has been simply to extend the work 

 of our far-away predecessors, who first sowed seeds and 

 made the astounding discovery that, ' ' whatsoever a man 

 soweth, that shall he also reap. ' ' Men applied the prin- 

 ciple by sowing what they preferred, and that alone; 

 and the marvelous fact is, that only within the last 

 twenty-five or thirty years have we begun in our labora- 

 tories and upon our experiment farms to do just that 

 same thing. And yet we undertake to fill the world with 

 the noise of our discoveries and our accomplishments ! 



So I return to the statement; not a single plant but 

 might lend itself to culture's suggesting guidance. You 

 may say nothing can be done with thistles, cockle-burs, 

 and darnel. This is not entirely a story in botany, or I 

 might show what has been done with these very plants, 

 that what they are is the result of Nature's tillage, and 

 is by her approved ; we may prefer something else. 

 But when Mr. Burbank takes the desert cactus, almost 

 the fiercest plant we know, and converts it into the inof- 

 fensive wealth of the meadow, into forage for cattle, into 

 delicacies for the table, pickles, confections, and pre- 

 serves, surely no plant may be put down as hopeless. 



To what limit may culture not reach, or where are then 

 the bounds of its applicability' Apparently in the nat- 

 ural, physical world, bounds there are none. But for us, 

 in our effort to deal with any particular plant, there is a 

 limitation, just one that I know. Nature's long tuition 



