LUTHER BURBANK 



All these Seckel pear trees are essentially 

 alike; they bear fruit that may vary in size and 

 lusciousness with varying conditions, but that is 

 everywhere essentially identical in flavor and in 

 the characteristic qualities of texture and color. 

 But if you plant the seeds of one of these pears 

 you do not secure Seckel pears, unless by the 

 merest chance, among the progeny. You secure 

 instead, representatives of a galaxy of ancestors, 

 no one of them individually just like the Seckel, 

 although collectively they represent all the 

 qualities of that fruit, plus almost numberless 

 undesirable qualities. 



Pairs of Qualities 



The fact that our most familiar and best prized 

 fruits and flowers show this lack of fixity, suggests 

 that the inherent difficulties in the way of fixing 

 the type of these plants so that they will breed 

 true from seed are very great. Otherwise some 

 one would long ago have remedied the defect, for 

 the advantages of being able to grow these useful 

 plants from seed are obvious. 



Nevertheless it should not be assumed that the 

 task of fixing the type of a newly developed race 

 of fruit or flowers is of necessity a hopeless one. 



The truth is that it would be possible to fix the 

 type of almost any variety of plant, provided time 

 enough and patience enough were devoted to the 



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