THE MAN AND HIS WORK 



duced a stoneless plum having commercial value. 

 Similarly, it will be necessary to overbalance the 

 undesirable qualities of the unevolved immigrant 

 by a preponderance of good blood if we are to 

 make use of his desirable qualities. 



From this point of view, then, the same ques- 

 tion is emphasized: The better stock of America 

 must be induced to reproduce itself more abun- 

 dantly than has been its custom of late, or the 

 infusion of immigrant blood of the type that is 

 coming to us will be ultimately harmful. 



As to the rearing of the human plant in its 

 early stages that is to say, the care of the child 

 Mr. Burbank has ideas that are equally pro- 

 nounced; and here he is able, perhaps, to make 

 more directly tangible applications of his studies 

 in the field. As a practical horticulturist, he has 

 been called upon thousands of times over to ob- 

 serve that everything depends upon the treatment 

 that the seedling receives the first few days or 

 weeks of its life. He takes infinite pains to pro- 

 vide just the right soil, just the right conditions 

 of moisture and sunlight and shelter from the 

 wind; and he has seen it demonstrated times with- 

 out number that the weal or woe of the future 

 plant, whatever its heredity, is largely determined 

 by this early treatment. 



Making application to the human plant, he be- 

 lieves that few people fully understand how 

 largely the body and mind of the child are molded 

 by the environing influence of infancy. He urges 

 very strenuously that life should be made agree- 



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