368 LUTHER BURBANK 



that the development of civilization has heen 

 largely conditioned on the mingling of different 

 racial strains. It is scarcely too much to say that 

 each of the great civilizations of the past was 

 built by a mixed race. It was so in Egypt, in 

 Assyria, in Greece, and in Rome in the ancient 

 days. It is true of the important races of central 

 Europe and of Great Britain in modern times. 

 And it is preeminently true of the American 

 race of our own day. 



The point is too obvious for elaboration. No 

 one needs to be told that the colonial stock 

 that came to America in the early part of the 

 j seventeenth century was itself made up of mixed 

 (ancestral strains. And the most casual inspec- 

 tion of statistics shows to what extent the 

 increase of population of the past hundred 

 years has been due to the coming of immi- 

 grants from all parts of Europe, including 

 the representatives of nearly every race of 

 civilized men. 



That such combination of racial strains, within 

 certain limitations, is likely to result in the devel- 

 opment of exceptional individuals will not be 

 doubted by any student of the subject, least of 

 all by the originator of new plants who has 

 produced striking results by a corresponding 

 mingling of divergent types. 



