IMPROVING THE HUMAN PLANT 



intelligent utilization of these forces. So it 'will be 

 accepted as a mere matter of course that we 

 should attempt, in completing the review of Mr. 

 Burbank's life work with the development of new 

 forms of plant life, to make application of the 

 practical knowledge gained in the experiment gar- 

 den to what might, without violence to words, be 

 described as the breeding of the human plant. 



Such an application we shall now attempt, 

 concisely, yet with as much explicitness as is 

 warranted. 



The Great Principle of Selection 



Even the most casual reader of this work will 

 be aware that the great fundamental principle that 

 guides us in aU stages of our experiments in plant 

 development is the principle of selection. 



We select first the kind of plant that is to be 

 utilized in a given series of experiments. We 

 select the best individual or individuals to be 

 found among the entire company of these plants 

 at our disposal. We select other individuals of 

 the same or of different species as mates before 

 cross-poUenizing, and in successive generations 

 we repeat these processes of selection and re- 

 selection over and over. 



Now in the human family precisely analogous 

 processes of selection are being employed, con- 

 sciously or unconsciously, in every commimity. Of 



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