SELECTIVE EVOLUTION 229 



So we see that, while nature might eventually 

 produce the things which we hasten her to pro- 

 duce, yet the improvements would find them- 

 selves in competition with the failures which 

 they cost, the failures outnumbering the improve- 

 ments, perhaps, a milHon to one. We see that 

 we not only shorten the process, not only achieve 

 a result out of every thousand failures instead of 

 every ten million, but we give our product the 

 advantage of a better chance to live — we remove 

 from it the necessity of fighting its inferiors 

 for the food, and air, and sunlight which give 

 it life. 



This, then, is the story of the making of a new 

 cherry to fit an ideal: 



First, selection of the elements; second, com- 

 bining these elements ; third, bringing these com- 

 binations to quick bearing; fourth, selecting one 

 out of the five hundred; and then, selection, on 

 and on. 



These, after all, are but details in the process 

 — ^minor details, in fact. 



The big element, overtowering them in im- 

 portance, is selection. 



First, the selection of an ideal, then the selec- 

 tion of the elements which are to be blended to 

 achieve it, then the selection of the resultant 

 plant, and after that the selection of better and 



