fruition. Of course as in the case of the conversion of a sinner from
his evil instincts, much opposition is met and the progress at first
is slow, but finally the plant becomes fixed in its new ways and starts
forward on its new course in life. It requires patience to await the
development Burbank is a man of infinite patience. He has been five,
ten, fifteen, twenty years in producing a desired blossom, but he
considers himself well rewarded when his object has been obtained.
Thousands of experiments are going on at the same time, but in each
case years are required to achieve results, so slow is the work of
selection, the rejecting of the seemingly worthless and the eternal
choosing of the best specimens to continue the experiments.

When two plants are united to produce a third, no human intelligence
can predict just what will be the result of the union. There may be
no result at all; hence it is that Burbank does not depend on one
experiment at a time. If he did the labors of a life-time would have
little to show for their work. In breeding lilies he has used as high
as five hundred thousand plants in a single test. Such an immense
quantity gave him a great variety of selection. He culled and rejected,
and culled and rejected until he made his final selection for the last
test.

Sometimes he is very much disappointed in his anticipations. For
instance, he marks out a certain life for a flower and breeds and
selects to that end. For a time all may go according to his plans, but
suddenly some new trait develops which knocks those plans all out of
gear. The new flower may have a longer stem and narrower leaves than
either parent, while a shorter stem and broader leaves are the
desideratum. The experimenter is disappointed, but not disheartened;
he casts the flower aside and makes another selection from the same