LUTHER BURBANK 



supposing that I can build such a fruit-structure 

 as I have conceived. 



And here the answer is supplied solely by 

 the use of imagination in connection with the 

 inspection of existing races of cherries. I examine 

 the best fruits already in the orchard and find 

 that there is a large measure of variation between 

 the cherries grown on different trees, as well as 

 between the individual specimens on the same 

 tree. 



In imagination I look back far into the past 

 and inquire as to the racial history of this fruit. 



I am led to believe that certain among the 

 ancestors of the cherry have grown in semi- 

 tropical climates, and I know that even in the 

 present day there are species, doubtless sprung 

 from the same original stock, that grow far up 

 into Canada. 



I ask myself why it is that the cherry shows 

 such a propensity to vary, and I find an answer 

 in the assumption that the existing cultivated races 

 carry in their veins, so to speak that is to say in 

 their germ plasm hereditary tendencies drawn 

 from varied strains of a mixed ancestry. 



And I feel well assured that it should be 

 possible, by accentuating the tendency to varia- 

 tion through further hybridizing, and by careful 

 selection, to combine and bring out in a more or 



[14] 



