Complimentary Banquet to Luther Burbank 



ceney, and the chances are that he will not grow into a 

 criminal but to an upright man. I do not say that heredity 

 will not sometimes assert itself, of course. When the crim- 

 inal instinct crops out in an individual it might appear as 

 if environment were leveled to the ground, but in succeeding 

 generations the effect of constant higher environmnet will 

 not fail to become fixed. 



"We in America form a nation with the bloods of half 

 the peoples of the world within our veins. We are more 

 crossed than any other nation in the history of the world, and 

 here we meet exactly the same results that are 

 always seen in a much crossed race of plants; all 

 the worst as well as all the best qualities of each 

 are brought out in their fullest intensities, and 

 right here is where selective environment counts. All 

 the necessary crossing has been done, and now comes the 

 work of elimination, the work of refining, until we shall get 

 an ultimate product that will be the finest human race 

 which has ever been known. It is perhaps this country which 

 will produce that race. Many years will pass before the 

 finished work is attained, but it is sure to come. The char- 

 acteristics of the many peoples that make up this nation will 

 show in the composite with many of the evil characteristics 

 removed and the finished product will be the race of the 

 future. 



"In my work with plants and flowers I introduce color 

 here, shape there, size or perfume, according to the product 

 desired. In such processes the teachings of nature are always 

 followed. Its great forces only are employed. All that has 

 been done for plants and flowers by crossing, nature has al- 

 ready accomplished for the American people. By the cross- 

 ings of bloods strength has in one instance been secured, in 



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