LUTHEU BURBANK 



On Mr. Burbank's experiment farm there 

 grows, today, this same teosinte grass which the 

 Indians found. 



It bears tiny ears with two rows of corn-like 

 kernels, on a cob the thickness of a lead pencil, 

 and two and a half to four inches long — slightly 

 less in length and diameter than an average head 

 of wheat. 



From its earlier stage of pod corn, in which 

 each kernel grew in a separate husk like wheat, 

 teosinte represented, no doubt, a hard fought 

 survival and adaptation like that of the flowering 

 violet. 



And when the Indians came into its environ- 

 ment it responded to their influence as the pansy 

 responded to care and cultivation in its new 

 dooryard home. 



"Where teosinte had formerly relied upon the 

 frosts to loosen up the ground for its seed, it found 

 in the Indians a friend who crudely but effectively 

 scratched the soil and doubled the chance for its 

 baby plant to grow. 



Where it had been choked by plant enemies, 

 and starved for air and sunlight by weeds, it found 

 in the Indians a friend who cut down and kept off 

 its coinpetitors. 



Where it had been often destroyed by the 

 animals before its maturity, it found the selfish 



[1281 



