GENERAL METHODS OF WORK 



pressing forward in a million similar ways, 

 toward the same end. And out of the million 

 he saves perhaps i ; the last sifting but one, 

 and that one the best of all. 



Running through all the work is the con- 

 stant effort to break up old habits of life. Mr. 

 Burbank sees two plants of the same, or it may 

 be widely differing, species. He sees that 

 neither one is Hving up to its opportunities. 

 For one reason or another they have been 

 slowly going down in the scale, possibly for 

 centuries; or else it may be they have been 

 as slowly going upward from some poorer 

 estate and have not had sufficient help. He 

 knows that back of each one of these plants 

 lies a long and varied history, full of incidents, 

 replete in experiences as strange in their way 

 and as subtle as any which come to man. 

 This past of the plant has produced the plant 

 of today — tomorrow it must be changed. 



Just as into the life of a man long inured to 

 bad habits, the son of evil parents, tracing his 

 lineage backward through a century of sin, 

 just as there must come into this life some 

 tremendous shock, be it a death, a terror, a 

 great love or an overpowering hate, completely 



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