LUTHER BURBANK 



iest of all environments for the production of im- 

 proved examples of the human plant. 



It is not meant to imply that the environment 

 of the city is necessarily unwholesome. But 

 it requires no argument to show that the average 

 city dweller is less favorably situated for the 

 development of normal children than is the aver- 

 age dweller on farm or in country village. 



Children vitally need fresh air and sunlight and 

 the out-of-door life. 



They need to be allowed to romp in the fields 

 and to come in contact with nature. 



The city walls and pavements are a pitifully 

 inadequate substitute for the greensward and the 

 trees of the country. And a generation for which 

 this substitution has been made cannot be expected 

 to improve upon the traditions of its parent gen- 

 eration. 



So the student of the human plant will do well 

 to give full attention to the question of improving 

 the environment of the human colonies with which 

 he is concerned. 



The story has been told of the way in which the 

 soil of my experiment garden at Santa Rosa was 

 prepared and modified and even metamorphosed 

 until the conditions were attained that were fav- 

 orable for the growth of my plant charges. With- 

 out such attention to the physical environment it 



[222] 



