HOW MAY I DO IT TO00;—BREEDING 
ways, to change its habits, to break up old 
traits, to make it more beautiful and more 
useful,—in a word, to handle and mold it as 
the potter his clay,—all this has in it a fasci- 
nation beyond the conception of one who has 
never entered upon such a course. 
Again he makes this point: That plant- 
breeding for the amateur is one of the most 
important aids to health. Plant-breeding and 
selection can never be carried on at their best 
save in the open. To be sure, there are tests 
which may be begun, and some which may 
largely be carried on, in the winter months 
indoors, and these have their own peculiar 
interest, but there is a large part of the year 
in any temperate climate, and almost the 
entire year in some portions of the country, 
where the work of plant-breeding can be 
carried on out-of-doors. It is in this outdoor 
life that Mr. Burbank sees one of the greatest 
goods that can possibly come to a man com- 
pelled for a great portion of his time to an 
indoor life. The plant-breeder, he maintains, 
should have neither time nor inclination to 
be sick. 
Highest of all his reasons for urging plant- 
245 
