LUTHER BURBANK 



tance. It is beyond question that the human 

 family comprises widely divergent races, and if 

 is scarcely open to question that the divergencies 

 in many cases are so pronounced as to make 

 hybridization between these races inexpedient, 

 even though it still is possible. 



The student of history tells us that the great 

 civilized races of the past were all mixed races. 

 This was true of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, 

 the Greeks, and the Romans. It is true of the 

 chief nations of to-day. 



But the races that intermingled to produce the 

 great peoples have always been somewhat closely 

 related. No good result has ever been achieved, 

 for example, by the commingling of Mongolian 

 and Aryan blood, or of Aryan vdth Negro. Such 

 wide crosses must be expected to produce at least 

 a measure of infecundity, and a commingling of 

 racial tendencies too divergent to be advanta- 

 geously blended. 



The case is comparable to that of the Paradox 

 walnut, even though it be not quite so extreme 

 as the case of the hybrid strawberries and dew- 

 berries. 



But what chiefly concerns us now is not the 

 past history of mankind, but the present and 

 future history; and in particular the history of 

 mankind here in America. There is taking place 



[302] 



