THEORIES AND CONCLUSIONS 
whose rank was highest in the departments 
of science most nearly related to his work 
came to their conclusions from inadequate 
data. 
For example, one man would arrive at a 
certain conclusion, or law, if he chose so to 
designate it, from the facts developed in a 
series of experiments with a dozen plants, 
carried on in a garden or a conservatory. 
Possibly, from the study of these plants, 
their habits, their changes under breeding 
and_ selection, these conclusions would be 
held absolute and applicable to a far wider 
field than that in which these few individuals 
were found. Working with the same plant, 
a flower or a fruit as the case might be, 
Mr. Burbank arrived at absolutely opposite 
conclusions. But, in place of a dozen plants, 
he used a hundred thousand; in place of 
a corner in a garden or a narrow space under 
the glass of a hothouse, he used an acre 
of ground in the open; in place of a dozen 
distinct plants from which to make con- 
clusions, he dealt with over two thousand 
species; and thus he was able to command 
an outlook broader than man had _ ever 
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