ON HURRYING EVOLUTION 



In such a bonfire tliere would be 499 cherry 

 grafts out of the five hundred which we have just 

 made; there would be 19,999 rose bushes which 

 had been brought to bearing in order to find the 

 twenty thousandth which was not burned — or 

 perhaps twentj' thousand rose bushes, the one 

 sought for not having been worth the saving; 

 there would be 1,500 gladiolus bulbs with an easy 

 market value of a dollar a piece, put in the fire 

 after the one, or the two, or the dozen best among 

 them had been selected; there would be a 

 thousand cactus seedlings, representing three 

 years of care and watchfulness, but useless now, 

 their duty done. A ten thousand dollar bonfire, 

 indeed, without exaggeration. 



The builder of bridges can sell the lumber used 

 in his false construction for seconds; and so, 

 too, could Mr. Burbank profitably dispose of the 

 elements of false construction in his work — those 

 millions of seeds and bulbs and cuttings which 

 represent second bests or poorer; but he does 

 not; every step in the process excepting those 

 concerning the final result is obliterated with a 

 ruthless hand. 



"It is better," says Mr. Burbank, "to run the 

 risk of losing a perfected product, through the 

 destruction of the elements which went into it, 

 than to issue forth to the world a lot of second 



[205] 



