THE BREEDING OF MEN 



to the laws of heredity and as to their practical 

 application. In particular, it has come to be 

 recognized more and more fully that the same 

 laws of heredity apply to all living creatures, and 

 that correct inferences may be drawn from obser- 

 vation not merely of lower animals, but also of 

 plants, as to the application of the laws of heredity 

 to humankind. 



This is peculiarly fortunate because plants 

 offer in many ways better opportunities for ob- 

 servation than do animals. The fact that plants 

 may be grown in enormous quantities, often ma- 

 turing in a single season, gives opportunity for 

 conducting experiments on a comprehensive scale, 

 and sometimes for the discovery in the course of a 

 few years of laws that might have required long 

 periods for their elucidation had observation been 

 confined to the direct breeding of the human race, 

 or even to the breeding of the most prolific do- 

 mesticated animals. 



Everyone is aware that Luther Burbank has 

 conducted experiments in plant breeding on a 

 more comprehensive scale than any other experi- 

 menter, and that he has operated with a large 

 number of individuals. His work has had to do 

 with members of the vegetable kingdom of every 

 type, and he has ceaselessly carried out his experi- 

 ments, seldom having less than three thousand 

 different ones under way, year after year, for a 

 period of almost half a century. Naturally he has 

 accumulated a vast fund of information, and this 

 has now become available to the general public 



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