275 LUTHER BURBANK 



plants have been multiplying not only in num- 

 ber, but in kind and in form. 



Moreover, from our wild plants, we may not 

 only obtain new products but new vigor, new 

 hardiness, new adaptive powers, and endless 

 other desirable new qualities for our cultivated 

 plants. 



All of these things are as immediate in possi- 

 bilities and consequences as transcontinental rail- 

 roads were fifty years ago. All can be made to 

 come about with such apparent ease that future 

 generations will take them as a matter of course. 



Yet we have not touched, so far, on the most 

 interesting field in plant improvement — the pro- 

 duction, through crossing, hybridizing, and selec- 

 tion, of wholly new plants to meet entirely new 

 demands. 



Who shall produce some plant — and there are 

 plenty of suggestions toward this end — which 

 shall utilize cheap land to give the world its sup- 

 ply of wood pulp for paper making, the demand 

 for which has already eaten up the larger part 

 of our forests and is fast encroaching on 

 Canada's? 



Who shall say that within twenty years there 

 will not be some new plant better than flax, 

 some plant which, unlike flax for this purpose, 

 can be grown in the United States, to supply us 



