LUTHER BURBANK 



original colony, whether blue, white, or interme- 

 diate, as may readily be demonstrated by compar- 

 ison if the original colony has been preserved, and 

 is now represented by unselected progeny. 



Of course, in my own experiments, the unse- 

 lected members would usually have been de- 

 stroyed, but the worker who experiments on a 

 smaller scale may find it desirable to preserve the 

 old colony, or some members of it, if for no other 

 purpose than to find encouragement in making 

 such a comparison as that just suggested. 



The results, as I have said, are sure to be 

 encouraging if you have carried out the experi- 

 ment in the way just outlined. Nothing more is 

 required than the use of your eyes and reasonable 

 judgment in selecting the best specimens; care in 

 the preservation of the seeds; cultivation of the 

 seedlings in the way we have elsewhere fully de- 

 scribed; and persistency in following up the 

 experiment. 



I have a good many times pointed out that in 

 such experiments there may not be very much 

 encouragement in the first generation or two. 

 Some forms of plant, and in particular those that 

 have not been very much under cultivation, or 

 that are represented by only one or two species, 

 may hold fixedly to their type and show at first 

 only a slight range of variation. In such cases 



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