The Training Of The Human Plant
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Related to The Training Of The Human Plant
Related ebooks
The Red Pill Food Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarcus Aurelius Updated: 21st Century Meditations On Living Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod Is a Verb!: Selah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings7 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Signature of All Things Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Journey into Truth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDialogues on the Supersensual Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife from Light: Is it Possible to Live without Food? - A Scientist Reports on His Experiences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlight into Freedom and Beyond: The Autobiography of the Co-Founder of the Findhorn Community Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Impersonal Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5God & Mind: Extraordinary Coexistence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConsciousness Unfolding (with Linked Toc) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Joining Miracles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Walter Russell's The Universal One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRiver-of-Heaven Open-Topped Ferry-Ride Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Jamil: Child of Light Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNatural Law in the Spiritual World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFootprints on the Path Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Byways to Blessedness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLight on The Esoteric Path: New Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdded Upon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Am That I Am: Said the Little Seed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Idyll of the White Lotus: Premium Ebook Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Hundredth Monkey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalter Russell - The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Music and Its Secret Influence: Throughout the Ages Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Supermundane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Philosophy of Freedom: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Know the Truth (Text only) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Gardening For You
The Complete Medicinal Herbal: A Practical Guide to the Healing Properties of Herbs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cannabis Grow Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medical Use Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Midwest-The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies, Unlock the Secrets of Natural Medicine at Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemy of Herbs - A Beginner's Guide: Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Floriography: An Illustrated Guide to the Victorian Language of Flowers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Language of Flowers: A Definitive and Illustrated History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Square Foot Gardening: A Beginner's Guide to Square Foot Gardening at Home Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Houseplants 101: How to choose, style, grow and nurture your indoor plants: The Green Fingered Gardener, #4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Companion Planting - The Lazy Gardener's Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grow Your Own Medicine: Handbook for the Self-Sufficient Herbalist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGardening Hacks: 300+ Time and Money Saving Hacks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Kitchen Garden: An Inspired Collection of Garden Designs & 100 Seasonal Recipes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden: Grow, Harvest, and Arrange Stunning Seasonal Blooms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Native American Herbalist Bible: A Handbook of Native American Herbs Usage in Modern Day Life and Recipes for Aliments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelf-Sufficiency Handbook: Your Complete Guide to a Self-Sufficient Home, Garden, and Kitchen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs: Your Complete Guide to the Hidden Powers of Herbs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Book of Backyard Medicine: The Ultimate Guide to Home-Grown Herbal Remedies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBackyard Beekeeping: What You Need to Know About Raising Bees and Creating a Profitable Honey Business Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be Your Own Herbalist: Essential Herbs for Health, Beauty, and Cooking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBackyard Pharmacy: Growing Medicinal Plants in Your Own Yard Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Herbalist's Bible: John Parkinson's Lost Classic Rediscovered Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdible Wild Plants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild Witchcraft: Folk Herbalism, Garden Magic, and Foraging for Spells, Rituals, and Remedies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Practical Botany for Gardeners: Over 3,000 Botanical Terms Explained and Explored Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Training Of The Human Plant
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taking on subjects that continue to be debated nearly a hundred years later, Burbank boldly asserts, "environment is the architect of heredity . . . acquired characters are transmitted and . . . all characters which are transmitted have been acquired." With enthusiasm, he looks forward to "the opportunity now presented in the United States for observing and, if we are wise, aiding in what I think it fair to say is the grandest opportunity ever presented of developing the finest race the world has ever known out of the vast mingling of races brought here by immigration." Burbank equates education with cloistered classrooms and little noses stuck all day in big books, thus concluding that early education impairs a child's nervous system. "No boy or girl should see the inside of a school-house until at least ten years old," he adamantly declares. And then, impatient with the notion that delinquency builds character, he scolds, "The most dangerous man in the community is the one who would pollute the stream of a child's life. Whoever was responsible for the saying that 'boys will be boys' and a young man 'must sow his wild oats' was perhaps guilty of a crime." In charmingly outdated language, he espouses viewpoints that continue to have their champions in our modern society, so much more hectic today than the ambitious, overbusy Americans whom he criticizes in his early twentieth-century world. He reminds us of universal and timeless truths that are rediscovered with each generation of parents, teachers, and psychologists: "You can never bring up a child to its best estate without love"; "Teach the child self-respect . . . No self-respecting man was ever a grafter"; "Do not be cross with the child; you cannot afford it. . . . We cannot treat a plant tenderly one day and harshly the next; they cannot stand it." (October, 1997)
1 person found this helpful
Book preview
The Training Of The Human Plant - Luther Burbank
PLANT
THE TRAINING OF THE HUMAN PLANT
I
THE MINGLING OF RACES
DURING the course of many years of investigation into the plant life of the world, creating new forms, modifying old ones, adapting others to new conditions, and blending still others, I have constantly been impressed with the similarity between the organization and development of plant and human life. While I have never lost sight of the principle of the survival of the fittest and all that it implies as an explanation of the development and progress of plant life, I have come to find in the crossing of species and in selection, wisely directed, a great and powerful instrument for the transformation of the vegetable kingdom along lines that lead constantly upward. The crossing of species is to me paramount. Upon it, wisely directed and accompanied by a rigid selection of the best and as rigid an exclusion of the poorest, rests the hope of all progress. The mere crossing of species, unaccompanied by selection, wise supervision, intelligent care, and the utmost patience, is not likely to result in marked good, and may result in vast harm, Unorganized effort is often most vicious in its tendencies.
Before passing to the consideration of the adaptation of the principles of plant culture and improvement in a more or less modified form to the human being, let me lay emphasis on the opportunity now presented in the United States for observing and, if we are wise, aiding in what I think it fair to say is the grandest opportunity ever presented of developing the finest race the world has ever known out of the vast mingling of races brought here by immigration.
By statistical abstract on immigration, prepared by the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor in Washington, I find, that, in the year 1904, 752,864 immigrants came into the United States, assigned to more than fifty distinct nationalities. It will be worth while to look carefully at this list. It shows how widely separated geographically, as well as ethnologically, is the material from which we are drawing in this colossal example of the crossing of species:
Study this list from any point of view. Where has there been found a broader opportunity for the working out of these underlying principles? Some of these immigrants will mate with others of their own class, notably the Jews, thus not markedly changing the current; many will unite with others of allied speech; still others marry into races wholly different from their own, while a far smaller number will perhaps find union with what we may call native stock.
But wait until two decades have passed, until there are children of age to wed, and then see, under the changed conditions, how widespread will be the mingling. So from the first the foreign nations have been pouring into this country and taking their part in this vast blending.
Now, just as the plant breeder always notices sudden changes and breaks, as well as many minor modifications, when he joins two or more plants of diverse type from widely separated quarters of the globe,—sometimes merging an absolutely wild strain