LUTHER BURBANK 



meat surrounding the seeds increased in quantity 

 and improved in quality; so that in virtually half 

 a century the large, luscious, juicy tomato we now 

 know is universally to be found in our markets, 

 in season and out. 



No man can say how many thousands or tens 

 of thousands of years it took wild environment to 

 separate the tomato from the seventy-four others 

 of its familj^ Yet, in less than half a century, see 

 what changes man, as an element of environment, 

 has worked! 



We take the seeds of our Ponderosa tomatoes 

 and set them out in a can or a shallow box, and 

 midsummer brings us new Ponderosas — so well 

 have we succeeded in fixing the traits we desire. 



But were we to take those same seeds to the 

 tropics and plant them under the conditions of 

 only fifty years ago an entirely different thing 

 would happen. 



The first generation would be Ponderosas, more 

 or less like those we grow here. 



But in the second generation, or, at latest, the 

 third, the seeds of those very Ponderosas, when 

 planted, would grow into vines which bear the 

 old type of tomato — the size of a hickory nut — an 

 immediate response, almost, to the wild tropical 

 environment which prevailed before man came 

 along. 



[234] 



