LUTHER BURBANK 



bests which have within them the power of self 

 perpetuation and multiplication, and which, if we 

 do not destroy them now, will clutter the earth 

 with inferiority or with mediocrity." 



So, we see that, while nature eventually would 

 produce the things which we hurry her to produce, 

 yet the improvements would find themselves in 

 competition with the failures which they cost, the 

 failures outnumbering the improvements, perhaps, 

 a million to one. We see that we not only shorten 

 the process, not only achieve a result out of every 

 forty failures instead of everj' million, but we give 

 our product the advantage of a better chance to 

 live — we remove from it the necessity of fighting 

 its inferiors for the food, and air, and sunlight 



which give it life. 



***** 



This, then, is the storj^ of the making of a new 

 cherry to fit an ideal: 



First, selection of the elements; second, com- 

 bining these elements; third, bringing these com- 

 binations to quick bearing; fourth, selecting one 

 out of the five hundred; and then, selection, on 

 and on. 



Interesting and wonderful as the process of 

 pollenation is, ingenious and successful as Mr. 

 Burbank's method of gi'afting is, important and 

 highly perfected as liis methods of growing and 



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