282 LUTHER BURBANK 



When we stop to think of it, all of the great 

 improvements in plant life have been wrought 

 within the railroad era. 



Yet our plants go back, who knows how many 

 tens of thousands of generations? 



It took the plum tree all of these uncounted 

 ages, in which it had only wild environment, to 

 produce the poor little fruit which we find grow- 

 ing in the woods. 



It took only two or three short centuries of 

 care and half-hearted selection to bring about the 

 improvement which is evidenced in the common 

 backyard plum. 



And it took less than a generation, after the 

 railroads came, to work all of the real wonders 

 which we see in this fruit to-day. 



Up to two or three human generations ago, 

 the plants, with their start of tens of thousands 

 of generations, were abreast of or ahead of 

 human needs. But human inventive genius, 

 going ahead hundreds or thousands of years at 

 a jump, bringing with it organization and spe- 

 cialization, has changed all of that. 



In our race across the untracked plains before 

 us we have outrun our plants. That is all. And, 

 having outrun them, we must lend a hand to 

 bring them up with us if they are to meet our 

 requirements. 



