LUTHER BURBANK 



improvements in plant life have been wrought in 

 the railroad era — using the railroad, figuratively, 

 to represent all of the invention, wealth and 

 progress which have accompanied it. 



There are, after all, but one hundred and forty 

 generations between us and Adam, if the popular 

 notions of elapsed time are correct — but one 

 hundred and forty father-to-son steps between 

 the Garden of Eden and now — but one hundred 

 and forty lifetimes, all told, in which whatever 

 progress we have made has been accomplished. 



Yet our plants go back, who knows how many 

 tens of thousands of generations? 



It took the plum tree all of these uncounted 

 ages, in which it had only wild environment, to 

 produce the poor little fruit which we find growing 

 in the woods. 



It took only two or three short centuries of 

 care and half-hearted selection to bring about the 

 improvement which is evidenced in the common 

 backyard plum. 



And it took less than a generation, after the 

 railroads came, to work all of the real wonders 

 which we see in tliis fruit today. 



The last two generations of the human race, 

 in fact, have accomplished more toward real 

 progress — have done more to make transportation 

 and quick communication possible — have gone 



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