LUTHER BURBANK 



There is no gainsaying the possibility that such 

 blending may have its advantages. But there 

 seems danger at the moment that the matter may 

 be overdone. 



When we read of the coming of as many as a 

 million three hundred thousand aliens in a single 

 year; and when -we are told that of those that come 

 from Southeastern Europe more than 35 per cent, 

 are of such undeveloped or atavistic types that 

 they are unable to read or write — we cannot escape 

 a feeling of solicitude over the introduction of so 

 high a percentage of blood of so doubtful a char- 

 acter into the strains of our developed colony of 

 American races. 



It must be recalled that when the plant devel- 

 oper brings from Japan or from Europe or from 

 Asia a new race of plants to combine with his 

 native stock, he selects always the very best indi- 

 viduals that are to be found. Very commonly he 

 breeds the newcomers for successive generations 

 and makes repeated selections before he finds an 

 individual suitable for his hybridizing experiment. 



He knows very well that if he were to choose 

 inferior members of any stock for his experiments 

 he would be working in the wrong direction, and 

 could not hope to produce improved races. 



But the immigrants that are flooding in on us, 

 in particular those that come from Southeastern 



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