ON FACT VS. THEORY 



combinations between the classes? Or to go above 

 the classes and make combinations between the 

 subkingdoms? 



"Give us time," says Mr. Burbank, "and we 

 could accomplish anything. 



"The limitations of our work are not limitations 

 imposed by Nature; they are limitations imposed, 

 alone, by the clock and the calendar. 



"Here we are, fighting ten thousand years of 

 hardened heredity with five or ten years of new 

 environment; sometimes we succeed; it is no 

 wonder that more often we fail; in five years, 

 however, we can usually work a transformation; 

 if we could afford to spend fifty years on a single 

 plant, we could upset every rule that has ever been 

 formulated about that plant; and if we could 

 spend five thousand years, we could, simply by 

 guiding Nature, accomplish, well, anything. 



"Every season we are working changes which 

 Nature would take ages to work; but from a 

 practical standpoint we must seek always to take 

 advantage of the old heredities which Nature has 

 stored up — to make them serve our ends, because 

 this can be done quickly; rather than to create and 

 fix new heredities which might take so long as to 

 rob our work of its usefulness." 

 ***** 



Here, then, is Mr. Burbank's bird's-eye view: 



[237] 



