LUTHER BURBANK 



compounds that are represented by such sub- 

 stances as sugar and lupulin, he is like a barbarian 

 standing before a beautiful temple. 



The barbarian could tear down the temple, but 

 he could not rebuild it. 



Similarly the chemist can tear the carbohydrate 

 molecule to pieces, but he cannot put it together 

 again. He knows how to pull to pieces the mole- 

 cule of sugar, for example, making it into a simpler 

 form of sugar, but he cannot build up even the 

 simplest form of sugar from elementary atoms, 

 were these ever so freely supplied him. 



Carbonic acid is everjrwhere in the air, and 

 water may be had for the asking. 



The chemist knows just hc*^ many molecules 

 of water he should take to combine with just so 

 many atoms of the carbon to make a molecule of 

 sugar or a molecule of lupulin. 



But he does not know how to go about the task. 



His only resort is to appeal to the agriculturist 

 in the field, who deals with living laboratories in 

 which the method of compounding these intricate 

 substances is understood. 



If the chemist would have sugar, he must seek 

 it in the product of the cane or sorghum, or beet. 

 If he would have lupulin, he must go to the hop 

 vine, for this plant alone has learned the secret of 

 its production. 



[158] 



