ON HURRYING EVOLUTION 



without our influence, nature might easil}' have 



taken till 3913. 



* * * * * 



The real work before us, then, is to study 

 nature's processes — to learn to read the history 

 of plants, to uncover tendencies and understand 

 their trends — and then to provide short-cuts so 

 that the far distant improvement may be made 

 a matter of months, instead of centuries. 



These short-cuts, and their application, from 

 this point on, will be our principal study; perhaps 

 a single illustration here, more comprehensive 

 than that of the daisj', will serve to give a clearer 

 idea of their kind: 



Let us take, then, as a specimen, Mr. Burbank's 

 methods in the production of a new cherry. 



First, as with the daisy, there must be an ideal 

 — some particular kind of cherry of which we 

 have made a mental blue print. Let us say that 

 our blue print calls for a large, sweet cherry, 

 which will ripen early and bear long — an eating 

 cherry rather than a canning cherry, so that 

 appearance is a great factor. 



The first step would be to gather in our 

 elements; to pick out a large, beautiful cherry 

 which, after the manner of many large, beautiful 

 fruits, may be more or less insipid in taste; then to 

 select another cherry, size and appearance incon- 



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