ON FACT VS. THEORY 



From the botanists of only a century ago, 

 examining only dead tomato blossoms from the 

 tropics, and dried tomato fruits the size of hickory 

 nuts — how could we expect an inkling, even, of 

 what the tomato with less than half a century of 

 cultivation could become? 



How short, indeed, the time which environment 

 requires to transform a plant beyond recognition 

 — especiallj^ when man, either consciously or un- 

 consciously, becomes a part of that environment! 



And, knowing what the Chinese did to the pear, 

 what the American Indian did to corn, what our 

 own fathers and mothers did to the tomato, can 

 we not see that, while stamen counting has its 

 place, yet, for real achievements in plant improve- 

 ment, we must look for help not so much to the 

 stamen counters as to the plants themselves as new 



environment brings their old heredities into view. 



***** 



Mr. Burbank has made combinations between 

 species; he has made combinations between 

 genera, not once, but many times; fertile, seed- 

 bearing combinations. 



How far, then, can plant combination be 

 carried? Is it possible to go above the genus and 

 make combinations between families? Or to go 

 above the family and make combinations between 

 the orders? Or to go above the orders and make 



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