Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-03-29
WORKING MIRACLES.
A Million Plants Sometimes Used by
Mr.. Burbank In a Single Test.

Mr.. burbank In a Single Test.
How does Luther Burbank work his
wonders? Here are two plants-one
from Australia, perhaps, the other
from Siberia. Each plant has its
characteristics, its life habits, Its struc-
ture, its hereditary tendencies-a life
distinct from all others. Each has
preserved its identity thousand
years. not varying to any great extent
through the long centuries. He takes
these two plants and gives them the
opportunity to unite. Struggle as each
may, with the fervor of 10000 years
of habit all powerfully upon it, it can
not overcome the change.
The pollen from one of the flowers
has found its way TO the stigma of the
other, borne by the sensitive finger
tips of a man accustomed to wait with
patience the outcome of his projects.
:, year passes. The seed from the new
plant is planted. From 1t may come
n plant like both of its ancestors. or
like neither, like nothing yet born in
the vegetable life of the world.
And this is what is sought: to make
1t different. to break up its life tenden-
cies, to recombine the hereditary intiu-
ences of its ancestry. In the breaking
up 1t may produce whole series of
monstrositlcs, the most strange and
grotesque plants that ever took root
III the soil of the earth. Some of these
plants are hideOus. and all such are
put to death. For the object is not
to produce abnormalliy. but splendid
form, a plant which shall have the
best characteristics of both parents
and become new and powerful fac
tor in the beauty or the utility of the
race. The next year and the next
there are more seeds and more plants;
and in a few years. so great is the
1 progression, there may be 100000.
Bear in mind that some of the great
est botanists of this and other days
have carried on their Investigations
into plant life and made their deduc-
tons and formulated their laws upon
n working basis of perhaps dozen
plants. Mr.. Burbank has usel as many
/ as million plants for n single test.
and he has more than once rejected
( every one of the millions. save. per-
haps. half dozen or even less.
When the great mass of plants in a
given test is ready for the final sc,l-
tiny to see what ones shall be allow.
ed to live, then comes the exercise OF
the most wonderful faculty OF thu
man. He must go over every one OF
these plants, be it ten thousand or a
million. and select from them such rs
are fit for use In n continuation of the
test. This he does with marvellous
rapidity. With aids to bring him the
plants, he passes upon them with such
rapidity that hundred thousand may
be decided upon in single day.
If all of these plants had to be test
ed in the usual way, 1t would cost nj
least $1,OOO,Uu0. Each would have tc
be set out by itself, covering con
siderable surface of valuable land
each would have to be cultivated and
cared for for four or five years; eacf
would have to be grated. Ii
single day this one man accom-
pllshes what could be reached other
wise only by years of waiting and by
an enormous attendant expense, his
mastery Judgment. backed by a won
derful intuition. enabling him to ac
complish that which indeed seems lit
tie short of a miracle.-Century.