THE MAN AND HIS WORK 



the principles of plant breeding, as Mr. Burbank 

 interprets them to the human race. 



At the very outset, we are met with obvious 

 difficulties. Mr. Burbank selected only good stock 

 from which to breed. He saves ten or a dozen 

 plants from a bed of thousands and tens of thou- 

 sands. Obviously no such restriction is possible 

 in the human family, even were we to put into 

 effect the most sweeping conceptions of the 

 eugenist. 



But Mr. Burbank optimistically calls attention 

 to the fact that the civilized races of to-day are 

 in effect highly selected stock. They are the result 

 of many centuries of breeding during which so- 

 ciety endeavored to rid itself of undesirables. 

 Capital punishment for minor crimes doubtless 

 had an appreciable eugenic influence; and under 

 the pampering conditions of city life, disease 

 decimates the ranks of the weaklings; even wars 

 tend on the whole to remove individuals of less 

 evolved mentality. 



So, on the whole, such a stock as the average 

 American race is a highly evolved and selected 

 type, in large measure adapted to its environ- 

 ment, and eminently fit for propagating the 

 species. 



But of course some members are better fitted 

 than others to carry out this function; and at 

 present there is an unfortunate tendency for the 

 better members to have small families while the 

 less desirable ones have large families. It per- 

 haps does not need the advice of the Santa Rosa 



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