CHAPTER XX 



THE PLAN BOOKS 



TT is doubtful if there is a single scien- 

 -*- tific man among the hundreds from this 

 country and Europe, who have visited Mr. 

 Burbank since his work became more widely 

 known, or a single person among the many 

 thousands of casual visitors, who ever heard 

 of his plan books. 



In conversation with a university pro- 

 fessor who was much interested in Mr. 

 Burbank's work, but who, in common with 

 some others, doubted if he were "scientific," 

 this question was put to him by a layman : 



" If a man have great imagination, re- 

 markable intuition, deep and wide knowledge, 

 persistence, absolute sincerity; and if this 

 man accomplishes what no other man or set 

 of men has ever accomplished in a given 

 department in the molding of old and the 

 creating of new forms of life, — is this the 

 furnishing of a scientific man?" 



318 



