ON THE POSSIBILITIES 



And fourth, transforming wild plants and 

 making entirely new ones to take care of new 

 wants which are growing with surprising rapidity. 



* * * * * 



The cost and quality of everything that we eat 

 and wear depend on this work of plant improve- 

 ment. 



The beefsteak for which we are paying an 

 ever-increasing price represents, after all, so 

 many blades of grass or, perhaps, so many slabs of 

 cactus; while the potatoes, the lettuce and the 

 coffee which go with it come out of the ground 

 direct. 



Our shirts are from cotton or flax, or from the 

 mulberry tree on which the silkworm feeds. 



Our shoes, like our steaks, resolve themselves 

 into grass; while our woolen coats represent the 

 grass which the sheep found after the cows got 

 through. 



The mineral kingdom supplies the least of our 

 needs; and the animal kingdom feeds on, and 



depends on, the vegetable kingdom, after all. 



***** 



"Who can predict the result," asks Mr. Bur- 

 bank, "when the inventive genius of young 

 America is turned toward this, the greatest of all 

 fields of invention, as it is now turned toward 

 mechanics and electricity?" 



[273] 



