New Creations in Plant Life: An Authoritative Account of the Life and Work of Luther Burbank

Front Cover
Macmillan, 1905 - 368 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 255 - If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
Page 224 - The individual who causes two blades of grass to grow where but one grew before, is held in highest emulation as a benefactor of his race.
Page 236 - ... has yet to approach the precision which we expect in the handling of steam or electricity, and notwithstanding the occasional sneers of the ignorant, these silent forces embodied in plant life have yet a part to play in the regeneration of the race which by comparison will dwarf into insignificance the services which steam and electricity have so far given. Even unconscious or half-conscious plant breeding has been one of the greatest forces in the elevation of the race.
Page 236 - ... later extinguish it. Thus adaptability, as well as perseverance, is one of the prime virtues in plant as in human life. Plant breeding is the intelligent application of the forces of the human mind in guiding the inherent life forces into useful directions by crossing to make perturbations or variations...
Page 238 - ... potatoes. But these vast possibilities are not alone for one year, or for our own time or race, but are beneficent legacies for every man, woman and child who shall ever inhabit the earth.
Page 236 - ... of these forces, and by radically changing environments, both of which produce somewhat similar results, thus giving a broader field for selection, which again is simply the persistent application of mental force to guide and fix the perturbed life forces in the desired channels.

Bibliographic information