THE PLAN BOOKS 
tifically and economically. But they will not 
be more strictly scientific, even in the eyes 
of the academician, than these records which 
have been kept of leading events in the life 
history of some of the most wonderful plants 
that even were given birth upon the earth. 
If Mr. Burbank had taken time to answer 
every criticism of his work or methods made 
by pseudo-scientific men of inadequate 
knowledge, he would have wasted many days 
that have been given to the ennoblement of 
the physical earth upon lines as strictly 
scientific as those followed by the most dis- 
tinguished scientists of this or any other 
century. But as real scientists have come to 
know the man and to study his methods, 
they have not hesitated to give him as great 
honor for his scientific attainments as for his 
marvelous accomplishments for the welfare 
of the race. I do not know that Mr. Burbank 
ever told any scientific man who ever visited 
him that he kept these plan books. It is 
more than likely that he never mentioned the 
fact ; it is only an incident in his lifework. 
No doubt, had he given the matter thought, 
telling the scientific men that such records 
333 
