Scientific Aspects of Luther But bank's Work 



blend, to mix, to add together, two desirable 

 characteristics, each possessed by only one of the 

 crossed forms. Some crosses are made in the 

 attempt to extinguish an undesirable characteristic. 



Third, there is always immediately following 

 the unusual production of variations, the recogni- 

 tion of desirable modifications and the intelligent 

 and efFective selection of them, /. e., the saving of 

 those plants to produce seed or cuttings which 

 show the desirable variations and the discarding 

 of all the others. In Burbank's gardens the few 

 tenderly cared for little potted plants or carefully 

 grafted seedlings represent the surviving fittest, 

 and the great bonfires of scores of thousands of 

 uprooted others, the unfit, in this close mimicry 

 of Darwin and Spencer's struggle and survival in 

 nature. 



It is precisely in this double process of the 

 recognition and selection of desirable variations 

 that Burbank's genius comes into particular play. 

 Right here he brings something to bear on his 

 work that few other men have been able to do. 



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