178 LUTHER BURBANK 



late and intensify the quality we want out of the 

 mass of heredity about us. 



''I thought," says some one, *'that plants could 

 be transformed merely by changing the environ- 

 ments in which they grow." 



So they can, if time is no object. But the 

 quick and economical way is to take advantage 

 of the combined environments of the past which 

 are at our instant disposal; to short-cut to our 

 result by using well-established traits and thor- 

 oughly formed habits, rather than to spend the 

 years or lifetimes which might be necessary to 

 produce new traits and new habits from the be- 

 ginning. 



It is better to seek out, first, what nature has 

 stored away for us, and then to use new environ- 

 ments to improve or intensify traits and habits 

 which already have the advantage of several cen- 

 turies of start. 



It is the same principle of economy which we 

 apply to everything we do. 



So long as there is plenty of coal within easy 

 reach it does not pay us to build machines to 

 utilize the energy of the sun's rays or of the ocean 

 tides. And, similarly, so long as there are un- 

 told thousands of plants embodying, in some 

 form, almost every conceivable trait we might 

 desire — untold thousands of plants like the cac- 



