ON HARNESSING HEREDITY 



be transformed merely by changing the environ- 

 ments in which they grow." 



"So they can," replies Mr. Burbank, "if time is 

 no object. But the quick and economical way is 

 to take advantage of the combined environments 

 of the past which are at our instant disposal; to 

 short-cut to our result by using well established 

 traits and thoroughly formed habits, rather than 

 to spend the years or lifetimes which might be 

 necessary to produce new traits and new habits 

 from the beginning. 



"It is better to seek out, first, what nature has 

 stored away for us, and then to use new environ- 

 ments to improve or intensify traits and habits 

 which already have the advantage of several 

 centuries of start. 



"It is the same principle of economy which we 

 apply to everything we do. 



"So long as there is plenty of coal within easy 

 reach it does not pay us to build machines to 

 utilize the energy of the sun's rays or of the ocean 

 tides. And, similarly, so long as there are untold 

 thousands of plants embodying, in some form, 

 almost every conceivable trait we might desire 

 untold thousands of plants like the cactus waiting 

 only our attention to make them useful we can 

 hardly afford to waste time in doing what nature 

 already, laboriously, has done." 



[143] 



