LUTHER BURBANK 



American race was in the middle of the nineteenth 

 century, it is something far different to-day. That 

 at least is axiomatic, regardless of our estimate as 

 to whether the change has been an improvement 

 or otherwise. 



The aggregate status of the population of the 

 plant colonies at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol to- 

 day has probably not more greatly changed from 

 the status of the colonies of 1886 than has the 

 average status of the American race changed in 

 the same period. 



Doubtless it would be impossible for anyone to 

 gauge accurately the precise character of the mod- 

 ifications in one case or the other. 



But in general terms it may safely be affirmed 

 that the members of the plant colonies have vastly 

 improved in the sense that they have been modi- 

 fied as to leaf or flower or fruit in such wise as to 

 make them better adapted to meet the needs and 

 tastes and desires of men. 



Whether the crossbred population of America 

 has been similarly improved in its average adjust- 

 ment to the needs of a highly evolved social en- 

 vironment is a question that we shall not, at the 

 moment, attempt to decide. 



Here, as before, it suffices to point out the con- 

 ditions and to suggest analogies with the cross- 

 bred plant colonies; but here also we must not 



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