ON HURRYING EVOLUTION 



In such a bonfire there would be 499 cherry 

 grafts out of the five hundred which we have just 

 made; there would be 19,999 rose bushes which 

 had been brought to bearing in order to find the 

 twenty thousandth which was not burned or 

 perhaps twenty thousand rose bushes, the one 

 sought for not having been worth the saving; 

 there would be 1,500 gladiolus bulbs with an easy 

 market value of a dollar a piece, put in the fire 

 after the one, or the two, or the dozen best among 

 them had been selected; there would be a 

 thousand cactus seedlings, representing three 

 years of care and watchfulness, but useless now, 

 their duty done. A ten thousand dollar bonfire, 

 indeed, without exaggeration. 



The builder of bridges can sell the lumber used 

 in his false construction for seconds; and so, 

 too, could Mr. Burbank profitably dispose of the 

 elements of false construction in his work those 

 millions of seeds and bulbs and cuttings which 

 represent second bests or poorer; but he does 

 not; every step in the process excepting those 

 concerning the final result is obliterated with a 

 ruthless hand. 



"It is better," says Mr. Burbank, "to run the 

 risk of losing a perfected product, through the 

 destruction of the elements which went into it, 

 than to issue forth to the world a lot of second 



[205] 



