is Luther Burbank whose fame as a creator of new plants has become
world wide.

The basic principle of Burbank's plant magic comes under two heads,
viz.: breeding and selection. He mates two different species in such
a way that they will propagate a type partaking of the natures of both
but superior to either in their qualities. In order to effect the best
results from mating, he is choice in his selection of species--the
best is taken and the worst rejected. It is a universal law that the
bad can never produce the good; consequently when good is desired, as
is universally the case, bad must be eliminated. In his method, Burbank
gives the good a chance to assert itself and at the same time takes
away all opportunity from the bad. So that the latter cannot thrive
but must decay and pass out of being. He takes two plants--they may
be of the same species, but as a general rule he prefers to experiment
with those of different species; he perceives that neither one in its
present surroundings is putting forth what is naturally expected from
it, that each is either retrograding in the scale of life or standing
still for lack of encouragement to go forward. He knows that back of
these plants is a long history of evolutions from primitive beginnings
to their present stage just as in the case of man himself. 'Tis a far
cry from the cliff-dweller wielding his stone-axe and roaming nude
through the fields and forests after his prey--the wild beast--to the
lordly creature of to-day--the product of long ages of civilization
and culture, yet high as the state is to which man has been brought,
in many cases he is hemmed in and surrounded by circumstances which
preclude him from putting forth the best that is in him and showing
his full possibilities to the world. The philosopher is often hidden
in the ploughman and many a poor laborer toiling in corduroys and
fustian at the docks, in the mills, or sweeping the streets may have