LUTHER BURBANK 



each country and combine them in different va- 

 rieties; to eliminate the faults as far as possible; 

 to select and test the best among the millions of 

 seedlings produced from the various combina- 

 tions; to redistribute these fruits when produced 

 and thoroughly tested, sending them back greatly 

 improved, their good qualities retained and others 

 added this has been the work of the plant orig- 

 inator in the attempt to produce an ideal plum. 



Having for working material plums in which 

 different combinations of qualities have been de- 

 veloped for the most part unconsciously from dif- 

 ferent races, our task was a consciously scientific 

 selection. 



We must strive to produce, in a few decades, 

 changes comparable to those that had been 

 wrought in the course of centuries through un- 

 conscious selection by many peoples under widely 

 diversified climates and conditions. Conscious 

 systematic selection was to amalgamate all the 

 best qualities of plums and plum-like fruits; those 

 that bore the imprint of the conservatism of the 

 Chinese race, the insularity of the Japanese, the 

 diversity of the European, the nomadism of the 

 Persians, the hardiness and variability of the 

 American. 



The best was to be taken from each, and the 

 good qualities developed in five widely varying 



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