LUTHER BURBANK 



caring for seedlings are — these, after all, are but 

 details in the process — minor details, in fact. 



The big element, over-towering them in im- 

 portance, is selection. 



First, the selection of an ideal, then the 

 selection of the elements which are to be blended 

 to achieve it, then the selection of the resultant 

 plant, and after that the selection of better and 

 better individual plants to bear the fruit which 

 reproduces the original selected ideal. 

 ***** 



Everything we do, then, is simply done to 

 facilitate selection. 



We produce new plants in enormous quan- 

 tities, in order that there may be many from which 

 to select; and having selected, we destroy nine 

 hundred and ninety-nine one thousandths of our 

 work. 



We strive all the while to produce quick 

 results — to eliminate the long waits and to shorten 

 those that we can not wholly eliminate — simply so 

 that our selection may be truly comparative — as 

 that of five hundred fruits tasted in a single after- 

 noon, and so that lingering expectancy may not 



prejudice our judgment, or the result. 



***** 



It took two thousand years to bring about the 

 juicy American pear by unconscious selection — 



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