194 LUTHER BURBANK 



of a more utilitarian purpose, has meant and will, 

 more and more, continue to mean untold for- 

 tunes of added wealth to the world. 



In order that the illustration may be com- 

 plete, let us sketch some of the possibilities of 

 employing this method. 



Let us begin with some garden vegetable 

 which for centuries has been acquiring traits 

 along the lines in which we have encouraged 

 it — working away, always, from the wild, 

 and toward the accomplishment of our 

 ideals. 



Let us say that we have been selecting it, un- 

 consciously perhaps, for its tenderness, or sweet- 

 ness, or early ripening, or productivity, or along 

 any line which has made it more desirable or 

 more marketable. 



Its evolution, then, has been simply a slow 

 response to a new environment which for the 

 first time in its history included man. 



Suppose, now, that we desire to work, in a 

 single season or a dozen seasons, an improve- 

 ment in this vegetable which will overshadow all 

 of the improvement which countless generations 

 of cultivation and unconscious selection have 

 wrought. 



Our first step is to secure its wild counterpart 

 — inedible, maybe; sour, perhaps; tough, no 



