GENERAL METHODS OF WORK 



is in process of development at once, hundreds 

 of varieties. But it is years in almost every 

 case before the end is reached, — so slow the 

 work of selection from year to year, this eter- 

 nal choosing of the best plants from the best. 

 And there are many obstacles. When two 

 plants are united to produce a third, no human 

 intelligence can predict just what will follow. 

 You have in the hollow of your hand a dozen 

 seeds from one of your choicest apples. It had 

 reddened in the autumn sun on a tree you had 

 known since boyhood. You had watched it 

 blossom in pink beauty in the springtime of 

 other years, had seen its fruit develop in the 

 mellowing summer, had watched its bare 

 branches tossed in the gale when the winter 

 snows lay deep at its feet. Here in your hand 

 lie the seeds of this apple. It may be you are 

 a thousand miles away from the old home 

 where the apple tree is growing. It would be 

 a rare delight for you, transplanted to another 

 region, and for your children after you, to raise 

 another tree from the seeds of the old friend. 

 So you plant your twelve seeds to rear on a 

 new soil the old friend, and not one of them 

 comes into a life in any particular like the 



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