LUTHER BURBANK 



without giving a moment of consideration to the 

 atom-structure of the iron which he works — with 

 never a thought of the forces which Nature has 

 einployed in creating the substance we call iron 

 ore. 



It is conceivable that one might become a good 

 cook — a master chef, even — without the slightest 

 reference to, or knowledge of, the structural 

 formation of animal cells and vegetable cells. 



Or that one might succeed as a teacher of 

 the young — might become, even, a nation-wide 

 authority on molding the plastic mind of youth — 

 without ever being assailed by the thought that 

 the forbears of the nimble-minded children in his 

 care, ages and ages ago, may have been swinging 

 from tree to tree b}^ their tails. 



And so, in most occupations, it has been 

 contrived for us that we deal only with present- 

 day facts and conditions — that there is little 

 incentive, aside from general interest or wandering 

 curiositjr, io try to lift the veil which obscures our 

 past — or to peer through the fog which keeps us 

 from seeing what tomorrow has in store. 



In plant growing, more than in any of the 

 world's other industries, does the scheme of 

 evolution and a working knowledge of Nature's 

 methods cease to be a theory — of far-away 

 importance and of no immediate interest — and 



[280] 



