JUNE 111 



HOW NATURE BETTERS PLANTS 



But Nature's reason for using this method 

 so seldom is a valid one. It furnishes no 

 chance for improvement. Seeds are ever 

 so much more hopeful. Each of them has 

 been produced by parts of two plants, and 

 when it grows up it will be something be- 

 tween them. Of course this is quite as 

 likely to be poorer than either as to be better. 

 But this is easily corrected. Nature simply 

 kills out the poorer ones. Some go because 

 they cannot endure drought, others have 

 not strength of stem to stand up, or they 

 lack brightness of flowers to attract insects. 

 The competition is so keen that the de- 

 fective ones die and only the good ones grow 

 on. Better still, there comes now and then 

 a strawberry genius that is quite as success- 

 ful in its own world as a human genius is in 

 our world, and here is the starting-point for 

 a better and stronger race. The experi- 

 mental gardener, who is always on the 

 lookout for new features, has two sources 

 on which he must rely. Careful and slow 

 nurture with its gradual improvement is apt 



