LUTHER BURBANK 



material was poured — a costly structure in itself 

 which was put up only to be torn down. 



"We can not call this wooden structure extrav- 

 agance or waste, because it was a necessary step 

 in the completion of the work. And so, while, 

 in nature, we find many individuals which are 

 weak — many steps which look like backward 

 steps instead of forward ones — many apparent 

 oversights, yet I prefer to believe, and my own 

 work has shown me that this is true, that these 

 are simply elements in a necessary scheme of 

 false construction, wdthout which the final object 

 could not be achieved. 



"The price of all progress is experiment; suc- 

 cessful experiment is brought about, always, at 

 a terrific expense of individual failures. 



"But who shall say that progress, any progress, 

 is not worth all it costs?" 



* * * * * 



Nature gets one success out of a million tries; 

 Mr. Burbank has gotten one out of forty. The 

 figures may not be exact, but the basic fact 

 underlying them is none the less important. 



It was simply by eliminating steps and pro- 

 viding short-cuts, and bringing the human mind 

 with its ideals, will, judgment and persistence into 

 the environment of the African daisy that we were 

 able to produce a pink one in a few months when, 



[192] 



