The plant creations of Luther Burbank are renowned throughout the world. The Burbank potato, the Burbank rose, the new walnut trees, the varieties of plums and prunes, the pineapple quince, the spineless cactus, the everlasting flower, the beautiful lilies—the many new species of vegetables, plants, fruits and flowers which Burbank has created by crossing inferior forms and breeding from the best resulting specimens—these experimental triumphs in the plant world are indubitable proofs of the truth of evolution. Mr. Burbank has shown that plant life is not fixed in form, but plastic and ever-changing, and that by breeding and selecting in accordance with Nature’s laws, man can cover the earth with new vegetables, fruits and flowers and vines and trees and grasses, more luxuriant and more wonderful than any found in an uncultivated condition.
Life, like clay, is malleable. Slowly, under the urge of Nature, rapidly in the hands of man, it shapes itself into new moulds. A problem in mathematics is known to be solved when it can be proved. In like manner, evolution is known to be certainly true, since, by following its laws, man now brings into the world new species of animals and plants that did not exist before.
A wonderful panorama is the story of evolution. From nebula to crusted earth, to life’s first spark in the primal sea, to the myriad forms that fought with teeth and claws in forest wilds, to the fierce-browed creature that earth first knew as human, to the warmth of love and the glow of thought in the heart and brain of finished man, the forces of Nature have shaped existence and crowned it with the power of the human brain. Man the builder, so long the victim of ignorance and fear, may now shape his destinies in a world fashioned to his choice. The desert has been made to blossom like the rose; cities of solid masonry have arisen from the noisome swamp; industries supplying a thousand human wants now occupy the sites where wild beasts once filled the jungle with their savage roars; the ocean, earth and air have yielded to the conquering power of thought; invention, art, discovery, have tapped exhaustless stores of wealth and culture; literature, the press, schools, disseminate intelligence; and, rising above earth, man now solves the secrets of the stars and calculates with precision their changing movements. Man, Nature’s gifted son, is Nature’s conqueror! Let him then learn the means by which to further improve his life. Let him equip his mind with truth. Let him solve his problems in the light of knowledge and enjoy a rational existence in a well ordered world.
Transcriber’s Notes:
The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.