LUTHER BURBANK 



experimenter to tell us that this propensity, if 

 not checked, must lead to disaster, but his experi- 

 ence may be cited as emphasizing the lesson. 



Unless the more desirable members of a race 

 can be made at least as prolific as the less desir- 

 able ones, that race must deteriorate. 



In this connection, the enormous immigration 

 of recent years, made up largely of individuals of 

 a less evolved type (as illustrated by the fact that 

 thirty-five per cent of the membership of the "new 

 immigration" cannot read or write), becomes a 

 possible menace. Twenty-seven million immi- 

 grants have come to us since 1860 that is to say, 

 during two generations. Mr. Burbank feels well 

 assured that so large an increment of new blood 

 must directly modify the character of our race; 

 and he is at one with many sociologists in ques- 

 tioning whether the increment of new germ-plasm 

 has been, on the whole, of a type to prove bene- 

 ficial. 



Of course even an illiterate immigrant might 

 bring certain qualities say a musical or artistic 

 sense that would be advantageous for blending 

 with American racial strains; somewhat as Mr. 

 Burbank 's inferior little French plum had one 

 important quality of stonelessness that made it 

 valuable. But it must be recalled that Mr. Bur- 

 bank was obliged to instil a preponderant influ- 

 ence from valuable strains of plants to the point 

 of entire elimination of the poor qualities of. the 

 original stoneless variety. Without this instilla- 

 tion of good qualities, he could never have pro- 



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