NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
happiness of the whole human race. Plant- 
breeding is the intelligent application of the 
forces of the human mind in guiding the 
inherent life-forces into useful directions by 
crossing to make perturbations or variations 
and new combinations of these forces, and by 
radically changing environments; both of 
which produce somewhat similar results, thus 
giving a broader field for selection, which 
again is simply the persistent application of 
mental force to guide and fix the perturbed 
life- forces in the desired channels. 
“Plant- breeding is in its earliest infancy. 
Its possibilities, and even its fundamental 
principles, are understood but by few. In 
the past it has been mostly dabbling with 
tremendous forces, which have been only 
partially appreciated, and it has yet to ap- 
proach the precision which we expect in the 
handling of steam or electricity. Notwith- 
standing the occasional sneers of the ignorant, 
these silent forces embodied in plant - life have 
yet a part to play in the regeneration of the 
race which, by comparison, will dwarf into 
insignificance the services which steam and 
electricity have so far given. Even un- 
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