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 three thousand 

 species; and thus he was able to command 

 an outlook broader than man had ever 



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