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SANTA ROSA NUT MEATS

•j|pj?Jw developing the Santa Rosa
walnut, Mr. Burhank had in mind not
merely thinness of shell and abundant
hearing, hut also the various qualities
of meat that are desirable. Among
other things, he elirninated the super-
fluous tannin, which gives the nut a
disagreeable astringencif as well as
brownish color. The whiteness of the
meats of the Santa Rosa is evidence of
his success in this regard.

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HOW PLANTS ARE TRAINED
TO WORK FOR MAN

BY LUTHER BURBANK Sc. D

^

TREES • BIOGRAPHY • INDEX

A' O L U .AI E \lll

EIGHT VOLUMES * ILLUSTRATED
PREFATORY NOTE BY DAVID STARR JORDAN

P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY
NEW YORK

Copyright, 191-i

By The Luther Burbank bociETY

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1914

By The Luther Burbank Society

Entered at Stationers' Hall. London

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1915
By The Luther Burbank Society
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1921
By p. F. Collier & Son Company

m.wufactured in u. s. a.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Nuts as a Profitable Crop ... 7

The Paper Shell and Other Walnuts 27
The Chestnut — Bearing Nuts at Six

Months 51

The Hickory Nut — and Other Nuts 77

Growing Trees for Lumber ... 97
Trees Whose Products Are Useful

Substances 125

Trees and Shrubs for Shade and

Ornament 149

Personal and Historical .... 175

The Story of Luther Burbank . . 217

My Early Years at Santa Rosa . 243

Patience and Its Reward .... 271

A Summary of the Work . . . 309
The Be^vring of This Work on Human

Life 349

1

A — Bur. Vol. 8

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Santa Rosa Nut Meats . Frontispiece

PAGE

A Dwarf Chestnut Tree .... 10

A Basket of Chestnuts .... 16

The Paper Shell on the Tree . . 30

Santa Rosa Walnuts 36

Parents and Offspring .... 44
Six-Months-Old Chestnut Tree in

Bearing 54

Yearling Chestnut Tree in Bearing 58

A Six-Months-Old Chestnut Tree . 62

Bur and Catkin 66

Well Protected 70

Chestnuts in the Bur 74

Hickory Nuts 80

A Pecan Tree 84

A Variety of Tropical Nuts ... 88

Chinquapins and Chestnuts ... 92

3

4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Wild Nutmeg 104

Olive Trees 116

The California Chinquapin as an

Ornamental Tree 130

The Variegated Box Elder . . . 138

An Acacia Tree in Bloom . . . 144

A Young Sequoia Gigantea . . . 152

The Largest Tree in the World . 158

Yellow Pine 162

The Judas Tree or Red-Bud . . . 166

The Hybrid Elm 170

Olrt: Ross Burbank, Luther Bur-
bank's Mother 184

Luther Burbank's Birthplace . . 202

The Old Homestead as It Now Appears 212

Mrs. Luther Burbank 224

Luther Burbank at the Age of

TwENTY-Fm: 246

My First Advertisement .... 252

View in the Santa Rosa Gardens . 258

Midsummer's View 266

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 5

PAGE

A Simple but Important Equipment 274

Soil- Stirring Implements .... 280

Seeds in the Greenhouse .... 286

Cleaning Seeds 292

A Collection of Sieves .... 298

Marking Rows for Planting . . . 304

Permanent Labels 312

An Effective Implement . . . . 318

Hybrids and Parents 324

Unnamed Beauties 330

Tigridia Seeds at Wholesale . . . 336

Midsummer at Santa Rosa . . . 342
Back View of My Home Showing

Vines 354

Tropical Luxuriance 362

A Striking Contrast in Seedlings . 370

NUTS AS A PROFITABLE
CROP

The Business Side of Nut Geowing

ACHESTNUT bushr exclaimed a visitor;
"that is the greatest marvel I have seen
yet. I was brought up under chestnut
trees; but when I see chestnuts growing on
huckleberry bushes I am certainly having a new
experience."

And no doubt this experience would be new
to almost anyone who has not visited my experi-
ment farm at Sebastopol. For, so far as known
to me until very recently, there have been no
chestnuts growing on bushes anywhere else in the
world. But there are plenty of them in the
orchard at Sebastopol ; that is to say, if a sprig of
a shrub only three feet or so in height and three
feet across is entitled to be called a bush.

Moreover the nuts that are borne on these
miniature trees are of the finest variety — large,
plump nuts, at least as large as half a dozen of
the ordinary eastern nuts you are likely to find

8 LUTHER BURBANK

growing on chestnut trees of the largest size;
and they are sweet in flavor.

If it is added that some varieties of the new
chestnuts bear when only six months old, when
grown from seed — rivaling corn or wheat, and
seeming quite to forget the traditions of their
own tribe — a further glimpse will be given of
the modification that scientific plant develop-
ment has wrought in the status of the nut-
bearing tree.

No other tree, to be sure, quite rivals the chest-
nut in this regard ; but some of the new walnuts
bear at eighteen months of age, which is quite
remarkable enough. And in general the time of
bearing of these nuts has been so hastened that
the growing of a walnut orchard to-day is an
altogether different matter from what it was
a generation ago.

Moreover, a way has been found to induce the
walnut tree to grow about four times as fast as
it formerly did; and the wood of the tree is of
the finest quality for the use of cabinetmakers.
Of course the latter fact is of incidental interest
only to the grower of nuts; yet it is not quite a
negligible factor. And, from another stand-
point, obviously, the wood-producing capacities
of the new trees have a high degree of
importance.

PROFIT IN NUTS 9

These and a few other transformations in the
nut-bearing trees, brought about by careful
selective breeding, have prepared the way for
an entire change of attitude of the horticulturist
toward the question of producing nuts as a busi-
ness, comparable to the business of the fruit

grower.

The Food Value of Nuts

Meantime there has been a marked change of
attitude on the part of the medical profession,
and, following them, of the general public, as to
the value of nuts in the dietary.

In fact, nuts have most substantial merits as
food, and these merits are yearly coming to be
more fully recognized. In the older countries,
nuts have already assumed — indeed have long
held — a position of economic importance, and
convincing evidence of their growing recognition
in America is found in the reports of experiment
stations of the Agricultural Bureau, which in
recent years have from time to time urged the
merits of various nuts upon the attention of
growers. A study of the market reports shows
that nuts of many kinds are handled on a com-
mercial scale in our cities.

There should be nothing surprising in this;
for, of course, in a wide view nuts are the seeds
of fruits, and there is no obvious reason why they

A DWARF CHESTNUT TREE

This hushlike tree is an example of
our hybrid chestnuts. The workman
who stands beside the tree is jive feet
seven inches tall. Note the abundant
crop of nuts on the tree and under the
tree. Gathering chestnuts becomes a
simple matter when the trees are of
this type. This tree bore its first crop
of nuts eight months after the seed
was planted, and has now borne ten full
crops of nuts when only ten years
of age.

PROFIT IN NUTS 11

should not have unusual dietetic value. More-
over they are for the most part grown on peren-
nial shrubs or trees rather than on succulent and
perishable annuals, and thus have close relation-
ship with the fruits of the orchard.

But the fact that nut-bearing trees for the
most part have received no special attention
from the cidtivator of the soil, their product
being gathered only casually, has caused them
to be regarded as wild products not falling
within the scope of the horticulturist. In most
parts of the United States the nut-bearing trees
have received no attention whatever from the
cultivator of the soil, and their product has been
regarded as a more or less superfluous luxury,
rather than as having dietetic consequence.

In the Gulf States and in California, in recent
years, there has been a radical change of attitude.
In these regions the cultivation of nuts is already
becoming an industry of great importance
More recently, the industry has extended to
New York and even to Canada. Meantime, the
use of nuts on the table in all parts of the United
States has become more and more habitual, and
they are beginning to take their proper place
among the important products of the soil. Their
recognition as really valuable foods is so com-
paratively recent, however, that it would not be

12 LUTHER BURBA]VK

superfluous to briefly run over the list of com-
mercial nuts, with reference to their food values
and their present and prospective economic
importance.

Such an outline may advantageously prepare
the way for the detailed account of the experi-
mental work through which new varieties of
several of the more important nuts have been
developed.

The Chief Maeketable Nuts

The marketable nuts include almonds, Brazil
nuts, filberts, hickory nuts, pecans, Persian or
English walnuts, chestnuts, butternuts, walnuts
pine nuts, peanuts, and coconuts, not to men-
tion several less known and little used species.

The coconut, the fruit of a palm tree, is indig-
enous to tropical and subtropical regions, and
may very likely have played a part in the history
of developing man not unlike that ascribed to
the date and the fig. It is still a most important
article of diet to inhabitants of tropical islands,
being prized not merely for the meat of the nut
but for the milky fluid which it furnishes in large
quantity. The natives sacrifice the partially ripe
nut for the sake of the milk, but most north-
erners find this a taste to be acquired with some
effort.

PROFIT IN NUTS 13

The meat of the ripe nut, as it comes to the
northern market, is extremely palatable, and in
a dried state, grated, it is widely emploj^ed to
flavor sundry delicacies.

The coconut is raised extensively in Cuba, and
to a limited extent in Florida and lower Cali-
fornia, the total number of these nuts produced
in the United States in 1899 being 145,000.

Most of the other nuts are similarly used as
accessories of diet, for variety rather than as
substantial. They are capable, however, of
playing a more important role, as the chemical
analysis of their constituents shows that they are
in the main highly concentrated foods, having
little waste aside from the shells. They contain
all the important constituents of diet — proteins,
fats, and carbohydrates — and are thus in them-
selves capable of sustaining life. They do not
contain the various elements in proper propor-
tion, however, to make them suitable for an
exclusive diet. Moreover, their highly concen-
trated character makes them somewhat difficult
of digestion if taken in too large quantities.

The chestnut differs from the other nuts in
having a relatively high percentage of starchy
matter, 42 per cent of its edible portion being
found in the carbohydrate division — a propor-
tion which no other nut except the acorn

14 LUTHER BURBANK

approaches. The amount of fat in the chest-
nut is proportionately small — only about 5V2
per cent, as against the 64.4 per cent of the
English walnut and the 71.2 per cent of the
pecan.

As to protein — muscle-forming matter — the
chestnut has but a little over 6 per cent, while the
English walnut has 16.7 per cent, and the
American black walnut and the butternut head
the list with 27.6 per cent and 27.9 per cent
respectively.

Chestnuts when fresh have a very much higher
percentage of water than other nuts — no less
than 45 per cent, whereas nuts in general have
but three to five per cent.

It appears, then, that the meat of the chestnut
furnishes a less concentrated food than other
nuts supply, but one that is rich in digestible
starches, of which it contains six or seven times
the proportion common to other nuts. This
excess of starchy constituents explains why the
chestnut is not generally reHshed so much as
many other nuts in the raw state. But it explains
also why this nut may be eaten in quantity when
cooked.

In France and Italy chestnuts are very gen-
erally eaten, usually being prepared by boiling,
and they constitute a really significant item in

PROFIT IN NUTS 15

the dietary of the poorer classes. Large quantities
of the nuts are also dried and ground to a flour,
which keeps for some time without deteriorat-
ing, and from which sweet and nutritious cakes
are made. It is said that in Korea the chestnut
takes a place in the dietary not unlike that which
the potato occupies with us, being used raw,
boiled, roasted, or cooked with meat.

Production and Value of Nuts

Until the chestnut blight came in very recent
years, threatening the entire growth of chestnut
trees in the northeastern United States, there
seemed a good prospect that the cultivation of
this nut would become an important industry in
the near future.

Meantime, there is no present indication that
the other nuts indigenous to the northern parts
of the United States are likely to be extensively
cultivated until they have profited by the experi-
ments of the plant developer. The thick shells
of hickory nuts and butternuts, and of the native
walnuts, interfere with their commercial value.
We shall consider in another connection the pos-
sibility of remedying these defects, but for the
moment the nuts that are grown on a commercial
scale are almost solely those that will flourish in
the warmer climates, and hence the industries

A BASKET OF CHESTNUTS

These are chestnuts of mixed herit-
age, combining the traits of European,
American, and Japanese species. Their
large size seems all the more remark-
able when it is known that they are
grown on pygmy bushes, quite unlike
the chestnut trees with which most of
us are familiar.

PROFIT IN NUTS 17

associated with their production are confined
mostly to the Gulf States and to the Pacific
Coast.

To be sure, the aggregate wild nut crop of
the Central and Northern States represents a
considerable value. But no official estimate has
been made as to the precise figures involved. In
general, the nuts obtained from such trees are
not looked upon as a commercial crop. They are
for the most part consumed on the farm or in
neighboring villages.

Only three kinds of nuts are grown on a com-
mercial scale in the United States at the present
time, these being the Persian or English walnut,
the pecan, and the almond.

According to the official reports of the Census
Bureau, the total nut crop reported for 1909 was
62,328,000 pounds. This was 55.7 per cent
greater than the crop reported for 1899, and the
value, $4,448,000, was 128.1 per cent greater.
^'California is by far the most important State
in the production of nuts, and Texas ranks next.
No other State reported as much as $100,000
worth of nuts in 1909."

The Census Report takes note of nuts other
than the three just named, but the total value of
all the others is relatively insignificant, the com-
bined value of the Persian walnuts, pecans, and

18 LUTHER BURBANK

almonds amounting to $3,981,000, or about
nine-tenths of the total for all nuts.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the
report on the production of nuts is the very rapid
increase in recent years. The crop of Persian or
English walnuts in 1909, for example, was more
than twice as great as that ten years earlier.
The production of pecans in 1909 was more than
three times as great as in 1899. The production
of almonds, on the other hand, had decreased
somewhat in the decade under consideration.

As to the actual number of trees under culti-
vation, the almond heads the list, the trees in
bearing in 1910 numbering 1,187,962, and j^oung
trees not in bearing numbering 389,575. By far
the greater number of these are in California,
which has 1,166,730 almond trees in bearing,
whereas Arizona, the second State, has only
6,639, and all other States combined have only
14,593. The total production of almonds in 1909
was 6,793,539 pounds, with a value of $711,970.

The almond is a native of v/estern Asia, and
has been cultivated from time immemorial. It is
mentioned in the Scriptures as one of the chief
products of the land of Canaan. In California
it has been more or less under cultivation since
about 1858. The best manner of its cultivation,
however, was not well understood, and the

PROFIT IN NUTS 19

greater ease and certainty with which the walnut
can be grown has led to the abandonment in
recent years of many of the almond orchards.

Nevertheless, the crop is one of considerable
importance, as the figures just given show.

The total number of Persian or English wal-
nut trees in bearing in 1910 numbered 914,270,
of which all but about sixty thousand are in
California. The rapid increase of the industry,
and its prospect of still greater increase in the
near future, is shown in the fact that the number
of young trees, not yet of bearing age, was
reported in 1910 as 806,413.

The extension of the industry is shown also in
the fact that of the trees not yet in bearing no
fewer than 177,004 are in the single State of
Oregon, and 5,513 in Mississippi. These figures
forecast the spread of industry to meet the grow-
ing demand for walnuts in America.

The total production of Persian walnuts in
1909 was 22,026,524 pounds, with a valuation
of $2,297,336.

It will thus be seen that the walnut takes rank
as a commercial crop of genuine importance.
The value of the crop approaches that of the
total crop of apricots, although not as yet
approaching the value of the half dozen more
popular orchard fruits.

20 LUTHER BURBANK

The Cultivation of the Pecan

In 1899 the pecan ranked third among nut-
producing trees, both as regards number of trees
imder cultivation and actual product. The pecan
trees in bearing at that time numbered 643,292,
with a net product of 3,206,850 pounds.

In the ten succeeding years the pecan industry
came ahead very rapidly, and in 1910 the pecan
was second to the almond as to number of trees
in bearing, and second to the Persian walnut as
to weight and value of its crop. Moreover, the
number of pecan trees under cultivation, but not
yet of bearing age in 1910, was actually larger
than the number of trees in bearing; showing a
surprisingly rapid increase of the industry.

The actual number of pecan trees in bearing
in 1910 was 1,619,521, and the number of young
trees under cultivation 1,685,066, making a total
of 3,304,587, a number in excess of the combined
numbers of almond and Persian walnut trees
under cultivation.

The production of pecans in 1909 was
9,890,769 pounds, with a value of $971,596. The
total production of 1899 was only 3,206,850
pounds. Thus, as already noted, the production
increased by more than three hundred per cent
in ten years. There seems every prospect that

PROFIT IN NUTS 21

the increase will be still more rapid in the coming
decade.

Peculiar interest attaches to the pecan because
it is the one nut indigenous to the United States
among those that at present have actual com-
mercial importance. The pecan, indeed, must
be looked to as now holding the position in the
southern portions of the United States that the
chestnut should occupj'- in the northern — that of
premier nut. In recent years its merits have
begun to receive wide attention, as the figures
just quoted show, and the cultivation of pecan
nuts for the market is likelj'- to become a very
important industry. Already there are numer-
ous named varieties on the market, each having
its champions.

These varieties have peculiar interest because
of the fact that each one of them represents not
an artificially developed product, as in the case
of most varieties of fruits and grains, but merely
the progeny of an individual tree.

It appears that here and there, particularly in
the State of Mississippi, there has grown a pecan
tree of unkno-wTi antecedents that became locally
famous for the large size and unusual quality of
its fruit.

These trees, it will be understood, are all of
one species, and the nuts are obviously all of one

22 LUTHER BURBANK

kind; no one would think of mistaking any one
of them for anything but a pecan. Yet the
individuality — the personality — of each tree is
revealed in the average character as to size,
shape, and peculiarities of shell and kernel, of its
fruit, and also as to the great difference in pro-
ductiveness and earliness or lateness of bearing.

The Varieties of Pecan Nuts

Of course such individuality is precisely what
we have become accustomed to expect in orchard
fruits and other plants under cultivation. But
until recently it has not been generally under-
stood that such diversity is commonly to be
found among wild plants. So the case of the
pecan furnishes an interesting illustration of the
variation of plants in the ^ald state. The pecan
trees that show these individual variations are
precisely like the cultivated varieties of orchard
fruits in that they do not breed true from seed.
Doubtless it might be possible to develop true
fixed varieties from each of them by selective
breeding, but this is not necessary any more than
in the case of orchard fruits. For, like other
trees, the pecan may be propagated by grafting
or budding.

Nothing more is necessary than to make cut-
tings of twigs or buds from the parent stock.

PROFIT IN NUTS %3

grafting these as cions on an ordinary pecan
stock, to produce new trees in indefinite numbers,
all of which retain the precise quality of the
parent.

Such grafts were made in the case of each of
a score or so of the famous individual pecans
above referred to, with the result that as many
varieties have been given assured permanenc}^
For the most part, these varieties have been
named after the location where the parent tree
grew, as the San Saba, the Rome; or else after
the original ovmer or an early cultivator, as the
Jewett, the F'abst, the Post, the Russell, the
Stuart.

According to a recent report of the Depart'
ment of Agriculture, there are ten of these
varieties that have now been advertised and
propagated for a sufficient time to gain wide
distribution.

Extensive orchards of pecans are now under
cultivation in almost all of the Southern States;
yet the industry is so recent that, with a single
exception, the parent trees of all the ten promi-
nent varieties are still alive and in a more or Jess
vigorous condition of bearing.

Unfortunately the pecan is restricted as to
habitat, but it flourishes as far north as St. Louis
in the Mississippi Valley, in all the Gulf States,-

24 LUTHER BURBANK

including Texas, and along the south Atlantic
seaboard. Texas is the chief producer (.5,832,367
pounds in 1909), Oklahoma second (894,172
pounds), and Louisiana third (723,578 pounds).
Without doubt hardier varieties, which may be
grown farther north, may in time be developed.

Meantime it is held with reason that within the
territory to which it is naturally adapted, no
other nut, native or foreign, can be considered to
compete with it.

The qualities of the pecan as a dessert and
confectioners' nut are familiar to everyone; but
the best varieties have hitherto been raised in
restricted quantities, and hence have not found
their waj^ extensively into the northern markets.
With the increase of the industry to commercial
proportions, this defect will soon be remedied,
and the pecan may be expected to advance rap-
idly in po]3ular favor. But, for that matter, the
demand already greatly exceeds the supply.

Observation of the deferred recognition of the
merits of the pecan suggests the inquiry as to
whether there may not be other indigenous nuts
that have similarly been ignored.

There is certainly not another of comparable
merit, but there is at least one neglected one that
the amateur at any rate might find worthy of
attention, whatever its defects from a commer-

PROFIT IN NUTS 25

cial standpoint. This is the familiar hazehiiit, a
near relative of the European filbert. The
hazelnut is smaller than its European cousin,
but it is of course susceptible of improvement in
that regard; and the hardy nature of the shrub
makes it suitable for waste lands, or as an
adjunct to the chestnut orchard, even far to the
north, but none of this class are suited to dry,
warm climates.

The hickory, the black walnut, and the butter-
nut, already referred to as of doubtful commer-
cial value, are nuts that may well appeal more
confidently to the amateur. They grow wild in
many regions of the Middle West where the
chestnut is not indigenous, and the black walnut
and hickory in particular are widely famed for
their lumber — or were before the vandalism of
the early settlers practically exhausted the sup-
ply. As to palatability, there are many persons
who would be disposed to place the butternut
near the head of the list of edible nuts; and no
one will deny the fine quality of hickories and
some of the black walnuts.

All in all, the opportunity for diversion and
profit in this unexplored direction seems pecul-
iarly inviting; and it is one that is likely to be
eagerly seized by an increasing number of grow-
ers as the years go by. The fact that nut-bearing

26 LUTHER BURBANK

trees add permanent beauty to the landscape
gives them an additional claim on the interest of
that growing body of city dwellers who are now-
adays harking back to the soil for esthetic rather
than for commercial reasons. Meantime the fur-
ther fact that an unfruitful tree may ultimately
be valuable as lumber should make additional
appeal to those nature lovers who, though calling
themselves amateurs, enjoy none the less to have
theii" hobbies bring them a certain monetary
return.

THE PAPER SHELL AND
OTHER WALNUTS

The Method Used to Produce Them

THE fact that more than 13,000 tons of
walnuts are now raised annually in Cali-
fornia, chiefly for shipment to the eastern
markets as against 2,300 tons raised in the year
1895, suggests better than any amount of com-
mentary, the growth of this new industry.

Part, at least, of the increased popularity of
the walnut may be ascribed to the introduction
of varieties having thin shells and more delicious
meats. All Persian, or so-called English, wal-
nuts have relatively thin shells as compared with
the American walnuts, but the production of the
"paper-shell" varieties puts these nuts in a class
quite by themselves.

And this matter of the shell is one of real sig-
nificance f]"om the standpoint of the consumer.
A nut like the American walnut, which can be
cracked with difficulty, requiring the use of a

hammer, can never gain great popularity. The

27

28 LUTHER BURBANK

difficulties encountered in extracting the meat of
the nut are too great. But a nut that has a shell
so thin that it can easily be crushed in the fingers
is sure to make its way and to be found more
and more generally on the dinner table.

The terms "paper-shell" and "soft-shell" as
applied to the walnut are interchangeable. There
are now several varieties of walnuts on the mar-
ket that are generally classified under one head
or the other. Their name merely refers to the
ease with which the nut can be cracked. As
to this there is great variation among ordi-
nary walnuts, and the soft-shell varieties also
show a diversity. But the best varieties are
so friable that they can readily be crushed in
the fingers.

The walnut is so variable that it is possible for
the plant developer to consult his own wishes in
the matter of modifying its shell. I have devel-
oped a variety in which the shell became so soft
that it could readily be penetrated by birds; in
fact, also, a nut that had a mere rim of shell,
being thus comparable to the stoneless plum.
There would be no difficulty in maintaining this
variety of shell-less walnuts, but its thinness of
shell was a disadvantage, and I found it de-
sirable to breed the variety back to a somewhat
thicker shell covering, by striking a compromise

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 29

between the old hard-shell varieties and a nut
that was practically without its protecting shell.

One of the thin-shelled new walnuts was intro-
duced under the name of the Santa Rosa Soft
Shell. It was produced by the usual method of
selective breeding, and in producing it, of course,
other qualities were in mind besides the thinness
of shell. In particular, selection was made for
early and abundant bearing, whiteness and pal-
atability of meat, with absence of tannin — it
being tannin which gives the brown color and
bitter taste to the older or ordinary walnuts.
The perfected Santa Rosa may be depended
upon to give much larger crops than the French
variety known as the Franquette.

It should be explained, however, that there are
two varieties of the Santa Rosa. One blooms
with the ordinary walnut trees, while the other,
like the Franquette, blooms two weeks later,
generally escaping the frost that sometimes
affect the early bloomer. In producing the new
soft shell, nuts of the ordinary walnut were
tested from many sources. There is great varia-
tion among these nuts, and some were found
that were almost entirely without shells. One
seedling had nuts with the meats half exposed;
that is, with shell covering a portion of its sur-
face, suggesting the abortive stone of the little

THE PAPER SHELL ON
THE TREE

In the course of experiments we have
produced walnuts that were devoid of
shell, hut this proved a disadvantage as
the birds soon learned the secret. It
was necessary, therefore, to select
specimens with thin shells, instead of
those with no shells, to continue the
experiment. The ones here shown have
shells of the ideal thickness and
delicious white meats.

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 31

French plum from which the race of stoneless
piums was developed.

By selection among the seedlings of this
almost shell-less walnut, it was found that a
walnut without any shell, bearing simply a husk,
could readily be produced. But, as just related,
the birds were quickly aware of the fact, and
soon taught me that, except for its scientific
interest, the shell-less walnut had no value.

After that the experiment in walnut breeding
was carried on in a somewhat different direc-
tion, a shell being obviously desirable. In due
tune two varieties were developed that had the
shell of just the right consistency; combining
this trait with the habit of early and abundant
bearing and excellent quality of the nuts
themselves.

Cions from these trees, grafted and regrafted,
make up the race of true Santa Rosa Soft
Shells. I am informed, however, that trees
grown from the seed have been extensively sold
as Santa Rosas, although they may depart very
widely from the characteristics of the parent
form.

The name cannot be applied with propriety to
any trees except those that are grown by graft-
ing, for the walnut is a variable tree and cannot
be depended upon to come true from the seed.

82 LUTHER BURBANK

The original Santa Rosa, however, was grown
from seed, and of course, it was necessary in per-
fecting the varieties to grow successive genera-
tions in the same way.

The parent tree was a wahiut growing in
San Francisco. It bore the most valuable nuts
of the kind that had ever been seen in Califor-
nia. Mr. Alfred Wright first called my atten-
tion to this tree about thirty years ago. I found
that it bore not only abundantly but regularly,
and that the nuts were of exceedingly fine qual-
ity, and of relatively thin shell, their chief fault
being that the two halves would sometimes sepa-
rate slightly, leaving the meat exposed to the air,
so that the meat did not keep as well as if in a
thoroughly sealed shell.

The original tree was destroj^-ed soon after my
attention was called to it, to make room for a
street, but I had secured nuts and had a colony
of seedlings under inspection. Among these
there was a great variation, giving me good op-
portunity for selection. Selection being made
with reference to all the desirable qualities of
the walnut in addition to thinness of shell, pres-
ently there was developed a variety that seemed
worthy of introduction, and cions and trees from
this were sent out under the name of Santa
Rosa.

A — Bur. Vol. 8

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 33

The nuts of this variety are of medium size,
ripening about three weeks earlier than any
other walnuts then grown in the State. The
meat is white and unsurpassed in flavor. The
thin shell is also light-colored. The tree bears
enormous crops, and about its only defect is
that it may, on occasion, be caught by the late
spring frosts. But even with this defect, it pro-
duces a larger crop of nuts than any other tree
that I have seen.

Without doubt the most productive walnut
tree in America and perhaps on earth is one of
these Santa Rosas, now standing at Campbell,
Santa Clara County, California. The owner
writes me as follows: "Regarding the Santa
Rosa walnut tree, we kept no record of the first
few crops. The record since is as follows:

1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903

250 lbs.
300
229
600

237
478
380

1904

. 481 lbs

1905

... 250 "

1906

... 200 •'

1907

... 380 •'

1908

... 712 "

1909

... 575 "

1910

... 600 "

These nuts have always sold for from two to
five cents more per pound than the 'No. I's*
from southern California."

B — Bur.

Vol.8

34 LUTHER BURBANK

Combining with the Japanese Walnut

The Paradox has extraordinary qualities of
growth, but it is ahnost sterile, producing only a
few nuts on an entire tree, and these nuts of the
poorest quality.

Another hybridizing experiment that had
great interest was that in which the Persian wal-
nut was crossed with the Japanese walnut,
known as Juglans Sieboldii. The Persian wal-
nut in these crosses was used as the pistillate
parent.

The first generation hybrids of this cross show
a combination of qualities of the two parent
species as regards the nuts, which are not borne
abundantly. The foliage is very much larger,
however, than that of either species, the bark is
white, and the tree itself is of enormously en-
hanced growth. It probably makes about twice
as much wood in a given period as either of the
parent species. The leaves are quite hairy on
both sides, even more so than those of the Japa-
nese parent. The branches are inclined to droop.

The nuts of the Japanese walnut have an ex-
ceedingly hard shell. The meat of the nut, how-
ever, is delicious, perhaps equaling that of any
other nut, with the exception of some varieties
of the pecan. But it is very difficult to get the

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 35

meats from the shell, as they are usually broken
in cracking the nut.

There is, however, a form of the Japanese
walnut which is so variant that it is sometimes
regarded as a distinct species, under the name of
Juglans cordiformis, but which I think not cor-
rectly entitled to this rank, inasmuch as the tvv^o
forms are closely similar as to general appear-
ance and growth. The chief difference is in the
nuts, which in the cordlformis are usually heart-
shaped, somewhat similar in appearance to the
form of the Central chestnut where these nuts
grow three in a bur. The nut is exceedingl}^
variable, not only in size but in form and thin-
ness of shell. Some indi\adual trees bear nuts
that are fully six times as large as those borne
on other trees from the same lot of seed. The
shell is much thinner than that of the Japanese
walnut, and the meat is of the same excellent
quality. Among all the numerous seedlings of
cordlformis grown here, nearly every one pro-
duced Sieholdi trees and nuts, therefore it may
as well be understood that cordiformis is only an
occasional wide variation from Sieholdi.

I speak thus in detail of this variety of the
Japanese walnut because its qualities are such as
to merit fuller recognition than it has hitherto
received. The tree is perhaps as hardy as the

SANTA ROSA WALNUTS

The picture shows the large size of
the Santa Rosa walnuts and the
symmetrical form and smoothness of
the shell. The shell itself is so thin that
it can readily be crushed in the fingers.

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 37

American black walnut ; it is as easily grown, and
perhaps even less particular as to soil and cli-
mate. The trees are very productive, especially
as they grow older. The branches droop under
the weight of the nuts. Where other walnut
trees bear nuts singly or in clusters of twos or
threes, the Japanese walnut tree bears long
strings of nuts, sometimes thirt}^ or more in a
single cluster. The nuts are thickly set about
the axils, the cluster being from six to twelve
inches in length.

The meats of the cordiformis drop out com-
plete when the thin shells are cracked.

Hybridizing Native Walnuts

The cross between the Persian and Japanese
walnuts, like that between the Persian and the
California black walnut, did not result in pro-
ducing a tree that had exceptional value as a
nut producer. This cross, like the other, brings
together strains that are too widely separated;
and while there is a great accentuation of the
tendency to growth, so that trees of tremendous
size are produced, there is relative sterility,
so that a tree sometimes bears only a few indi-
vidual nuts in a season.

But the results were very strikingly different
as regards the matter of bearing when the Cali-

38 LUTHER BURBANK

fornia black walnut was hybridized with the
black walnut from the eastern part of the United
States. These two trees are most closely re-
lated species, and have diverged relatively little.
Doubtless the time when they had a common an-
cestor is relatively recent as contrasted with the
period when that common ancestor branched
from the racial stem that bore the Persian and
Japanese walnuts.

Yet the differences between the walnuts of
the eastern and western parts of America are
sufficient to introduce a very strong tendency to
variation.

Indeed, the result of crossing these species
was in some respects scarcely less remarkable
than that due to the crossing of the Persian wal-
nut with the black walnut of California.

In this case, as in the other, the hybrid tree
proved to have extraordinary capacity for
growth. Indeed, I have never been able to de-
cide as to which of the hybrids is the more rapid
grower. But in the matter of nut production,
the discrepancy was nothing less than startling.
For, whereas the first-generation Paradox wal-
nut produced, as we have seen, only occasional
nuts, the hybrid between the two black wal-
nuts— it was named the Royal — proved perhaps
the most productive nut tree ever seen.

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 39

I have elsewhere cited a tree sixteen years of
age, that produced twenty large apple boxes full
of the nuts in a season, so extensive a crop that
I sold more than $500 worth of nuts from this
single tree that year. And the following year
I sold nuts from the same tree to a value of
$1,0.50. The nuts were used for seed to produce
trees of the same variety. In 1918 the nuts
from this tree were counted and before they had
quite all fallen from the tree there were 17,160
nuts making a little over forty-five bushels as
they fell in the husk.

This extraordinary difference between the two
hybrids is doubtless to be explained by the
slightly closer affinity between the parents of the
Royal. Their relationship chanced to be pre-
cisely close enough to introduce the greatest
possible vigor and the largest tendency to varia-
tion compatible with fertility. The parents of
the Paradox, on the other hand, were removed
one stage farther from each other, permit-
ting the production of offspring of vigorous
growi:h, but bringing them near to the condition
of infecundity. They were not absolutely
sterile, but their fecundity was of a very low
order.

The seedlings of the Royal hybrid vary in
the second generation, as might be expected.

40 LUTHER BURBANK

although the variation in size and foliage is less
than in the case of the Paradox. The extraor-
dinary range of size, some of the second-genera-
tion hybrids being giants and others dwarfs,
has been elsewhere referred to. It will be re-
called that some of these second-generation hy-
brids grew to the height of four feet in the first
year, while beside them were others that grew
only six or eight inches and some only one and
one-fourth inch. The nuts from which they
grew had been picked from the same free, and
planted the same day side by side.

To make sure of securing trees having ex-
actly the traits of the original Royal, it is neces-
sary to grow the trees from grafts either of the
first-generation hybrid or a selected second-gen-
eration hybrid showing rapid growth. The num-
ber of the latter, however, is sufficient to insure
a reasonable proportion of good trees from any
lot of seed; and the Royal has been in general
demand as a tree to furnish stocks on which
the Persian walnut may be grafted, and for
forestry.

It is found that on most soils a Persian w^al-
nut grafted on roots of the Royal hybrid will
produce a much larger crop than if on its own
roots. Moreover the trees under these condi-
tions are relatively free from the blight.

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 41

The nuts of the Royal hybrid are similar to
those of the parents, except that they are larger
in size. The very thick shell is objectionable, as
already noted. Doubtless the shell can be made
thinner by selective breeding, but no compre-
hensive efforts in this direction have as yet been
carried out. The black walnut, in spite of the
really fine quality of its nuts, has never become
an important article of commerce. But there
are great possibilities for it if the shell could be
reduced to a condition comparable to that of the
English walnut.

The nuts borne by the Paradox are interme-
diate in form and appearance between the types
of nuts of its parents. Exteriorly they resem-
ble the Persian walnut, but the shell partakes of
the thickness and solidity of that of the black
walnut. In at least two instances among the
thousands of second-generation Paradox wal-
nut trees that have been grown, the trees pro-
duce extra large fine walnuts in abundance.
However, both of these are quite thick-shelled,
but from their second-generation hybrid, which
can be multiplied abundantly, good, hardy, thin-
shelled varieties may yet be produced.

It is possible that further hybridizations^ in
which the Royal and Paradox hybrids were
themselves crossed, might result in the develop-

42 LUTHER BURBANK

ment of a variety, properly selected, that would
retain the good qualities of the Persian nut,
and combine these with the size and prolific bear-
ing of the Royal. This has later been accom-
plished with striking results.

Hybridizing Methods

But, of course, whoever undertakes improving
the nut trees must be content to make haste
slowly, for the black walnut has not as yet been
made to bear when very young, as the chestnuts
and some strains of the English walnuts now do.
But in this regard also there would doubtless
be rapid improvement under selection.

The actual method of hand-pollenizing is very
simple. Nothing more is necessary than to break
off the flower-bearing branch, just at the right
time, and shake it over the flowers of the pis-
tillate parent.

Of course, one cannot make sure that some of
the flowers will not be self-fertilized, and this is
wholly unnecessary, for by planting a large
number of the nuts any good judge can deter-
mine from the appearance of the seedlings
which ones are hybrids. Also where the trees
grow close together there are sometimes natural
hybrids, though this was not generally known
when I made my first experiments in 1875-1880,

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 43

When making these first experiments at
hybridizing the walnuts, seeds of the entire tree
were planted. In the rows of seedlings, anyone
could at once determine which ones were hybrid-
ized, as these grew far more rapidly than the
others, besides differing notably in general ap-
pearance.

First, experiments were made with two black
walnuts, and it was the success of this that led
me to hj^bridize the Persian and California wal-
nuts the following year. The hybridization in
which the Japanese walnut was used was made
a few seasons later. The results, as regards the
production of nuts, have been sufficiently de-
tailed. Up to the present no variety of com-
mercial value as a nut bearer has been produced,
although the indirect influence of the hybrids on
the Persian walnut industry, through their use
as stocks, has been quite notable.

The Butternuts

There is a very near relative of the black wal-
nut, known as the butternut, that was formerly
well known in most forest regions of the east-
ern United States. The two trees are of closely
similar appearance, and the nuts have the same
characteristic thick and corrugated shell. The
butternut, however, is oval in shape, whereas the

PARENTS AND OFFSPRING

At the right, a specimen of the
Persian or English walnut — at the
left, a specimen of the Japanese walnut,
known as Juglans Seiholdii. In the
center a hybrid between these two
species. It will be seen that the hybrid
is much larger than either parent, and
that it shows qualities of each, following
the Persian parent in its general
appearance, and the Japanese parent
in the form of the shell.

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 45

walnut is nearly round. The meat of the butter-
nut is also somewhat richer in quality, and it is
generally regarded as superior in flavor. The
meat itself is by many people regarded as
superior to that of any other nut. The difficulty
is that the shell, like that of the blacK walnut, is
very thick, making it difficult to extract the meat
without breaking it.

The butternut thrives generally where the
black walnut does. It makes a more spreading
tree, but the wood is softer and far inferior for
cabinet purposes.

There is also an Asiatic species, known as
Juglans Manchurica, that may be regarded
as intermediate in form between the butter-
nut and the black walnut. The trees rather
closely resemble the Japanese walnut in general
appearance, but bear a nut with rough surface
like the butternut, and the meat is also similar
in quality and appearance to that of the
butternut, being superior to that of the black
walnut.

This tree may be said to form a connecting
link between the Japanese walnut, the American
black walnut, and the butternut. Without doubt
it could be used advantageously in a hybridizing
experiment that would ultimately blend the
strains of these different species.

46 LUTHER BURBANIC

Cultivation of the Walnut

The idea of growing walnuts commercially is
one that has scarcely been thought of in the tem-
perate regions of the United States. Even in
regions of the Middle and Eastern States where
the English walnut will grow, it has never been
cultivated extensively, and of course this tree is
yet too tender to be profitably grown in the
colder Northern States. But the black walnut
and butternut, on the other hand, are exceed-
ingly hardy trees, thriving even in regions where
the winters are excessively cold.

All of these trees, however, require a deep, rich,
moist, loamy soil, in order to thrive. Trees that
produce wood of such extraordinary hardness of
texture, and nuts so stocked with fats and pro-
teins, could not be expected to draw adequate
nourishment from impoverished soil. In fact,
the black walnut and the butternut, in the re-
gions of the United States to which they are in-
digenous, are usually found growing along the
rivers, or in rich alluvial valleys. The idea that
they could be raised to advantage on soil that is
too poor to produce ordinary crops of cereals or
vegetables is fallacious.

At the moment, there is not demand enough
for the black walnut or the butternut to justify

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 47

the raising of these trees on a commercial scale.
It will be necessary to produce new varieties by
hybridization and selective breeding before these
nuts can be made popular. But, as before said,
there is every reason to believe that a series of
experiments looking to the production of im-
proved varieties would be more than justified by
the results obtained, and I shall point out in an-
other connection the commercial possibilities of
producing lumber trees in this way that make
the project doubly attractive.

It may be well to call attention to one or two
peculiarities of the walnut that should be known
to anyone that attempts hybridizing experiments.

In particular it should be understood that the
staminate flowers of the walnut usually bloom
and shed their pollen from one to four wrecks
before the fruit-bearing nutlets appear.

One w^ould naturally suppose, under these
circumstances, that the pollen would all be lost
and that there could be no crop. But the pollen
appears to retain its vitality for a long time, and
even where it has been shed some weeks before
the ripening of the pistillate flowers, there may
be a full crop. The hand-poUenizer must bear
in mind this tendency of the walnuts to mature
their flowers at different times. Still, as already
suggested, the pollen appears to retain its vital-

48 LUTHER BURBANK

ity, and ultimately to be able to effect fertiliza-
tion even though applied some time before the
full maturity of the pistils.

In parts of France the early spring frosts are
likely to be very destructive to the ordinary wal-
nuts, and the French nut raisers have come to
depend largely on the Franquette, a variety
already referred to. While this variety is in
some respects inferior, it has the one supreme
quality of not blossoming until the season of
spring frosts is over. It blooms perhaps four
weeks later than ordinary varieties. This in-
sures a good crop from the Franquette variety,
even in years when others have been damaged by
frost, so that the average production of this va-
riety throughout a term of years may be higher
than that of some others that in any given sea-
son may surpass it.

There is opportunity to cross this variety with
the other varieties of the Persian walnut that
blossom earlier, but produce a better crop of
nuts. Such crossing has supplied material from
which races have been developed that retain the
late-blooming habit of the Franquette, com-
bined with the nut-producing qualities of the
other parent.

We have seen that a tendency to bloom late in
the season is usually correlative to a tendency

PAPER SHELL WALNUTS 49

to early ripening of fruit, so that late bloomers
are adapted to growth relatively far to the
north. But this is exactly opposite with the
Franquette, this being a late walnut.

But for the production of very hardy races
it is probable that hybridizing with the black
walnut, the same cross that produced the
Paradox, must be looked to, to supply the foun-
dation for a series of experiments in selective
breeding.

The pioneer work has been done in the pro-
duction of the Paradox walnut itself.

It may reasonably be supposed that further
experiments, in which this hybrid is used as a
parent, will lead to the development of alto-
gether new races of nuts that will have economic
importance.

The entire matter of the development of com-
mercial nuts has only recently begun to attract
the attention of the growers. There is reason to
expect that the developments of the next few
generations will be comparable to the progress
of the past century in the development of
orchard fruits.

THE CHESTNUT — BEARING
NUTS AT SIX MONTHS

A Tree Which Responds to Education

WHEN a boy in Massachusetts, I used
to observe the great variation among
the native American chestnuts in my
father's woodlots. Like most boys I was fond
of nuts, and in gathering them soon learned that
there were certain trees that bore large, glossy,
rich brown nuts with sweet meats, and that there
were other trees that bore only small, flat, ash-
colored nuts of insignificant size and inferior
quahty.

I observed that the trees that bore these seem-
ingly quite different nuts differed also in size
and in foliage, and particularly noted that such
variations were not due to any local conditions,
inasmuch as the trees bearing fine nuts and those
bearing poor ones might stand side by side.

Similar variations were noted regarding a
good many other trees and plants of various
kinds. But the variations among the chestnuts,

51

52 LUTHER BURBANK

and also among the pignuts, hazels, hickories,
shellbarks, and butternuts made a very vivid
impression on my mind. It seemed strange that
trees obviously of the same kind should show
such diversity as to their fruit.

When, at a later period, my experiments were
started in California, it occurred to me that a
plant showing such inherent tendency to vary
should afford an unusual opportunity for devel-
opment— for by this time I had come to fully
appreciate the value of variation as the founda-
tion for the operations of the plant experimenter.

But I had conceived the idea also — as our
earlier studies have shown — that there would be
very great advantage in hybridizing the best
native species of plants with plants of foreign
origin. And the chestnuts were in mind among
others when I sent to Japan and Italy and the
Eastern States for new plants with which to
operate. So the very first lot of plants that came
to me from Japan (in November, 1884),
included twenty-five nuts that I find listed in a
memorandum as "monster" chestnuts. The same
shipment, it may be of interest to recall, included
loquats and persimmons with which some inter-
esting experiments were made; pears, peaches,
and plums of which the reader has already heard ;
and climbing blackberries and yellow and red

THE CHESTNUT 53

fruited raspberries that had a share in the devel-
opment of some fruits that presently attained
commercial importance.

But perhaps there was nothing in the entire
consignment that was destined to produce seed-
lings with more interesting possibilities of devel-
opment than the twenty-five "monster" chest-
nuts. For the hereditary factors that these nuts
bore were to have an important influence in de-
veloping new races of chestnuts of strange habits
of growth — chestnuts dwarfed to the size of
bushes, yet bearing mammoth nuts, and of such
precocity of habit as sometimes to begin bearing
when only six months from the seed.

To be sure, other chestnut strains were
blended with the Japanese before these anom-
alous results were produced; but it is certain
that the oriental parents had a strong influence
in determining some at least of the most inter-
esting peculiarities of the new hybrid races.

Very Mixed Ancestry

That the antecedents of the precocious chest-
nuts may be clearly revealed, let me say at the
outset that the Japanese forms were hybridized
with the three other species as soon as they were
old enough to be mated, and that the hybrids in
turn were crossed and recrossed until the strains

SIX-MONTHS-OLD CHESTNUT
TREE IN BEARING

This is a veritable infant prodigy.
Only six months ago its cotyledons
broke the soil; and to-day it bears
good clusters of maturing fruit, as the
picture shows. To cause a tree to take
on this habit of an annual plant is a
remarkable triumph in selective
breeding.

THE CHEST:NrUT 55

had been blended of all the different kinds of
chestnuts that could be obtained.

These included, in addition to the Japanese
species just cited, representatives of the Euro-
pean chestnut in several of its varieties — one of
which came from China — and of the native
American chestnut of the familiar type; and
also the little native species known as the
Chinquapin.

It is interesting to record that the chinquapin,
with its almost insignificant nut, crossed readily
with the Japanese species, the mammoth nut of
which would seem to place it in quite another
class.

But there is apparently a very close affinity
between all the different chestnuts. All of them
have varied and thus perpetuated forms that
more or less bridge the gap between the typical
representatives of the different species, and, so
far as my observations go, all of them may read-
ily be interbred. In a word, the chestnut fur-
nishes most plastic material for the purposes of
the plant developer. Just how I have utilized
that material will appear as we proceed.

At the time when the chestnuts were received
from Japan, there were already at hand trees of
the European and American species of various
sizes. So soon as the Japanese seedlings were of

56 LUTHER BURBANK

sufficient size, I grafted them on these Euro-
pean and American trees, in this way being able
to stimulate development, and to observe the
progress of cions from several hundred seedlings
on the same tree.

This, of course, is precisely the method used
with my plums and other orchard fruits. The
advantages already detailed in connection with
the orchard fruits were, of course, found to
apply equally to the chestnut. The ingrafted
cions were led to fruit much earlier than they
would have done on their own roots; there was
saving of space; and it was easy to hybridize
the many cions that were thus collected on a
single tree.

Of course, I was carrying forward numerous
experiments with the chestnut all at the same
time — crossing each species with every other spe-
cies, so that in a single season there would be a
large number of hybrid forms of different par-
entage. So when two of the hybrids were inter-
bred the strains of four different species or vari-
eties were blended. Thus a hybrid of the second
generation might combine the ancestral strains
of the Japanese and European and American
chestnuts and of the little chinquapin.

Thus opportunity was made for wide selec-
tion among hybrids that combined these various

THE CHESTNUT 57

strains iii different ways. And for the next gen-
eration, I could combine different hybrids or in-
breed a given strain or introduce the traits of
any different variety chosen.

All these methods were utilized, and in addi-
tion, of course, the usual method of rigorous
selection was employed, so that soon a colony of
chestnuts was developed, not only of the most
complicated ancestry, but also a carefully se-
lected colony in which none that did not show
exceptional traits of one kind or another had
been permitted to remain.

Precocious Traits

Of the many rather striking peculiarities of
the new hybrids, doubtless the one that attracts
most general attention is the habit of precocious
bearing.

From the outset these hybrids were urged to
early bearing, by the method of grafting and
selection, as already noted; and of course there
were saved for further purposes of experiment
only the individuals that were the most preco-
cious, if other good qualities predominated.
But, even so, I was not prepared to find some of
these seedlings bearing large nuts in abundance
in eighteen months from the time of planting
the seed. Yet such extraordinary precocity as

YEARLING CHESTNUT TREE
IN BEARING

These precocious chestnuts are com-
plex hybrids, comhiniiig the traits of
European, American, and Japanese
ancestors. Such chestnut hushes as
this may perhaps take the place of
the devastated chestnut forests of our
Eastern States,

THE CHESTNUT 59

this was shown by many of the seedlings in the
third and subsequent generations.

Moreover, if the grafts were taken from the
seedlings and placed on older trees, they would
produce nuts within six months after grafting.
During the past ten years, many of these seed-
lings have produced nuts, like annual plants,
the first year of planting, while growing on
their own roots, and when not over twelve to
eighteen inches in height.

The value of such habits of early bearing,
from the standpoint of the plant developer, will
be obvious. Ordinarily one must expect, in deal-
ing ^vith nut-bearing trees, to wait for a long
term of years between generations. In the case
of the hickory, for example, after one has planted
the nut, it cannot be expected that the seedlings
will bear flowers and thus give opportunity for
a second hybridizing for at least ten years, and
no large crop of nuts may be produced till the
tree is forty or fifty years old. So even two or
three generations of the hickory compass a large
part of a century.

But with these new hybrid chestnuts, genera-
tion may succeed generation at intervals of a
single year, just as if we were dealing with an
annual plant instead of a tree that may live for
a century. And of course to this fact very

60 LUTHER BURBANK

largely I owe the rapid progress of these experi-
ments in the development of new varieties of
chestnuts.

Not only do many of the mixed hybrids show
this extraordinary precocitj'', but some of them
also develop the tendency to bear continuously.
On the same tree throughout most of the year
may be found flowers and ripe nuts. Flowers
both staminate and pistillate appear on the same
tree from time to time, season after season, and
in due course the flowers are replaced by grow-
ing nuts, so that there is a regular succession
month after month.

This habit of continuous bearing, manifested

by a tree that ordinarily produces its flowers and

in turn its nuts at fixed seasons, is perhaps

scarcely less remarkable than the habit of early

bearing. Doubtless the two are genetically

associated.

Chestnut Seedlings

The care of the chestnut seedlings presents
no important complications.

The general plan in selecting seedlings for
further tests is the same employed in the selec-
tion of seedling fruit trees. Prominent buds,
large leaves, thick, heavy twigs, almost invaria-
bly forecast large, fine fruit. There is, however,
an exception to be noted in the case of the Jap-

THE CHESTNUT 61

anese chestnut, which has smaller leaves. It is
necessary to bear this in mind in dealing with
seedlings that have a Japanese strain. It is
needless to say that the capacity to select the
right seedlings for preservation is highly impor-
tant, as an element in saving time and expense
in the practical development of improved vari-
eties of chestnuts.

Abeady, I have referred to the saving of time
that may be accomplished through grafting the
chestnut seedlings instead of waiting for them to
develop on their own roots. Unlike most other
trees, the chestnut should not be grafted until
just before the bark begins to slip in the spring.
If grafted much earlier it is necessary to protect
the grafts by tying a paper sack over them until
they start growth to prevent evaporation ; but in
every case it is better to wait till shortly before
the bark begins to slip. This is unlike the
cherry, which must be grafted very early or suc-
cess is extremely doubtful.

When grafting is performed after the bark
begins to slip, it is necessary to tie down the
bark against the graft with a string to keep it
in place, otherwise it rolls away from the graft
and union does not take place. If grafting is
done at the right time and with reasonable care,
it is usuallv successful.

A SIX - MONTHS - OLD
CHESTNUT TREE

The picture shows the tvay in which
the chestnut burs form in relation to
the catkins. Many of the hybrid
cliestnuts have the peculiar quality of
putting forth blossoms at almost
every season, so that flower buds and
blossoms and mature fruits may be
found on the same branch.

THE CHESTNUT 63

In the main, very little attention has been
paid to the chestnut by cultivators of nuts.
Until very recently, such chestnuts as have
appeared in the market have been gathered
from wild trees or imported from Europe,
Recently, however, the possibilities of cultivating
the chestnut have gained attention and in a cer-
tain number of cases orchards have been started.
I have introduced three different varieties of
hybrid chestnuts, the Hale, the Coe, and the
McFarland, and these have been grafted on
ordinary chestnut stocks to form the basis
of many chestnut orchards of the Southern
States.

In some cases the roots of the chinquapin
have been used as the foundation for grafting,
in regions where the ordinary chestnut does
not occur. Chestnut orchards have also been
started bj^ planting the seed. Reasonable success
attends this method, but of course it lacks the
certainty of grafting. No one should attempt
to start an orchard except by grafting.

Unfortunately there has developed within
very recent years a disease that attacks the chest-
nut tree and invariably destroys it. The disease
at first appeared in the neighborhood of New
York City about the year 1904, and it has
spread in all directions, each year reaching out

64 LUTHER BURBANK

a little farther, until in 1920 there were very few
chestnut trees unscathed within fiftj'^ or sixty-
miles of the original center of contagion.

The cause of the disease is a fungus that is
perpetuated by minute spores that are presum-
ably carried through the air and that, when
they find lodgment, develop in such a way as to
destro}^ the cambium layer of the bark, pres-
ently causing the death of the tree. The small
twigs of a single branch will often first show the
influence of the fungus and the leaves may die
and become brown and shriveled on one or two
large limbs of the tree when no other part of it
is affected. But in the ensuing season the dis-
ease is sure to spread, and the tree seldom sur-
vives beyond the third year.

As yet no way of combating the pest has been
suggested, except the heroic measure of cutting
down trees immediately they are attacked, and
burning every portion of their bark. In this
way it is hoped to limit somewhat the spread of
the disease, but it is by no means sure that the
method will be effective. There appears to be
danger that the pest will spread until it has dec-
imated the ranks of the chestnut throughout the
eastern United States; and of course there is no
certainty that it may not find its way to the Pa-
cific Coast, although the lack of chestnut trees

THE CHESTNUT 65

in the desert and plateau regions of the Middle
West may serve as a barrier.

The precise origin of the fungus that causes
the disease was not known until the summer of
1913, when it was discovered by Mr. Frank N.
Meyer, of the United States Department of
Agriculture, that the fungus (which bears the
name Endothia parasitica) is indigenous to
China. The oriental chestnut trees have be-
come practically immune to it, however, and it
does not destroy them, but merely blemishes
their bark here and there with canker spots. No
one knows just how the disease found its way to
the United States, but it may have come on
lumber brought from the Orient.

The appearance of this pest came as a very
discouraging factor just at a time when interest
in the chestnut as a commercial proposition was
being thoroughly aroused. Government bul-
letins had called attention to the value of its nut
and its possibility as a paying crop.

But, of course, all expectations were nullified
in the regions where the ravages of the chestnut
fungus are felt.

Fortunately, it appears that some of the
hybrid races that bear the oriental strain are
immune to the disease. Reports show that
hybrids between the Japanese chestnut and the

C— Bur. Vol. 8

BUR AND CATKIN

It always seems matter for surprise
that the round burs of the chestnut
should grow in catkins that seemed
destined to produce fruit cluster's of
a quite different type. Here is a
picture that emphasizes the contrast^
as it shows a well-developed bur in
connection with the remains of the
catkin.

THE CHESTNUT 67

American chinquapin are peculiarly resistant.
The chinquapin itself is at least partially immune
to the disease, but of course this tree bears a nut
that is too small to have commercial value. The
hybrids, however, in some cases are said to retain
the good qualities of the chestnut tree combined
with the capacity to bear large nuts acquired
from their oriental ancestor.

It is obvious, then, that here is another case in
which the introduction of new blood from the
Orient may be of inestimable value. The loss of
our native chestnuts is a calamity, but it is a
calamity that is not irreparable. We may have
full assurance that new chestnut groves will
spring up in the wake of the pest.

It is obvious that the early-bearing chestnut
offers great advantages for such reforestation.
The probability that these will prove immune
to the pest gives them added attractiveness. If,
however, the existing varieties should prove not
to be immune, it will be necessary to develop
resistant varieties. For it is obvious that the cul-
tivation of the chestnut will not be abandoned
merely because it has met with an unexpected
setback.

It has already been pointed out that the chest-
nut has exceptional food value on account of its
high percentage of starchy matter. It therefore

68 LUTHER BURBANK

occupies a place in the dietary that is not held by

any other nut. So there is an exceptional

incentive to reintroduce the trees in devastated

regions.

The Chestnut Orchard

Possibly the coming of the chestnut plague,
even though it has resulted dii-ectly in the
destruction of the entire chestnut groves through-
out wide regions, may be a blessing in disguise,
as it may make it necessary to bring the chestnut
under cultivation in order to preserve the nut
at all, whereas in the past it has grown so abun-
dantly in the wild that little attention has been
paid to it.

Accounts of the destruction of the trees have
doubtless brought the chestnut to the attention
of many people who hitherto have never given
it a thought. The value of the chestnut as an
ornamental tree and its possibilities as a nut pro-
ducer will perhaps be more fully appreciated
than they otherwise would be on the familiar
principle that blessings brighten as they take
their flight. And it may chance that the tree
will be placed under cultivation so generally as
to be more abundant twenty-five or thirty
years from now in the devastated regions than
it would have been if the chestnut blight had
not appeared

THE CHESTNUT 69

In any event it seems now at least as desirable
as ever before to urge the value of this tree both
for ornamental purposes and as a producer of
commercial nuts, and the rules for the develop-
ment of chestnut orchards that have been given
by the Department of Agriculture may be
reviewed to advantage.

Even if people living in the infected district
are slow to take up the cultivation of the chest-
nut, the orchardists of other regions may advan-
tageously do so. For it is not supposable that
the coming of a fungoid pest will be permitted
to exterminate one of our most valuable native
trees.

In developing a commercial chestnut orchard
it is obviously desirable to graft with the
improved varieties. Quite aside from the mat-
ter of producing trees that are immune to the
fungous pest, the orchard may be made far more
productive if grafted with improved varieties
than if the native species were used.

Some of these seedhngs, for example, produce
nuts two inches in diameter, each weighing an,
ounce or more ; and these are borne in clusters of
from six to nine nuts to the bur. It is notable,
however, that the excessively large nuts are
usually lacking in flavor; although the reason-
ably large ones are of the best quality.

WELL PROTECTED

3Iost of the hyhrid chestnuts have
a spiny covering that affords ample
protection against the attacks of birds
or squirrels. In this regard, the speci-
men here shown resembles the typical
chestnuts of our eastern forests. There
are other varieties, however, that have
given up their spiny covering, leaving
the burs as smooth as apples.

THE CHESTNUT 71

These hj^^brid varieties graft readily on the
native stock. They may be counted on to bear
abundantly the second season. It may be well,
however, to pick off the burs as soon as formed
during the first year or two, in order that the
energies of the tree may be given over to the
production of branches.

Even where the blight has destroj^ed the chest-
nut, the sprouts that spring up everywhere about
the stumps of the trees may be grafted and trees
of more satisfactory qualities than the old ones
and far more productive may thus be developed
in the course of a few years.

Where the chestnut orchard is developed from
the seed or by transplanting seedlings, it is rec-
ommended that it should be located on a well-
drained sandy or gravelly soil. The trees thrive
well on rocky hillsides, and even on rather poor
sand, but observation has shown that they are
somewhat uncertain of growth on stiff" clay solU
in the east, although Itahan chestnuts in Cali-
fornia are said to thrive on heavy clays. In gen-
eral, it is more important to have a thoroughly
drained soil than soil of a particular character.

It will be recalled that my new varieties were
developed on the foundation of stocks imported
from Japan. It will also be understood, as a
matter of course, that selections with tliis tree as

72 LUTHER BURBANK

with all other plants have been made always with
an eye to the exclusion of any races that showed
susceptibility to fungous pests of any kind.

As an illustration of the care with which these
selections were made, in the development of the
improved varieties, I may note that in various
instances only three or four seedlings were
selected out of ten thousand. It may be added
that orchards made by grafting cions of these
improved hybrid chestnuts on ordinary Ameri-
can stock have proved enormously productive.

It has been estimated that rocky and otherwise
useless hillsides may be made productive, where
practically nothing else could be grown that
would be of special value.

This western golden chestnut {Castanea
chrysophylla) is a remarkable species. On the
heights of the Sierra Nevada mountains it grows
as a shrub only four or five feet tall, much
branched. These shrubs produce nuts quite
abundantly. Along the coast the same species
grows to a height of 150 feet, with an im-
mense trunk. One can scarcely believe that
the little bush and the gigantic tree are of the
same species.

Being an unusually ornamental evergreen the
mountain variety should be extensively planted
in cold climates.

THE CHESTNUT 73

There is a great difference among the different
chestnuts as to the amount of their sugar con-
tent. In some species the starch is so little trans-
formed that the nuts are scai'cely edible unless
cooked. In others there is an abundant sugar
content, the nuts being sweet and palatable. Of
course this matter was in mind in developing
hybrid varieties. But there is still opportunity
for improvement.

It is also desirable to reduce the amount
of tannin contained in nearly all of the
varieties.

Some of the chinquapin varieties also have the
habit of holding the leaves during the winter,
giving the trees a very untidy appearance. Seed-
lings that show this tendency should be avoided
in making selection.

Points in Selection

Of course it is elementary to say that the nuts
should be selected for dark, rich, glossy brown
color, for tenderness of flesh, and for productive-
ness. Of my three earlier introduced varieties,
all were early and abundant bearers, but one
was particularly notable for its earliness, and
another for its combination of good qualities.

Doubtless the feature that is next in line of
improvement in the development of the chestnut

CHESTNUTS IN THE BUR

In this specimen, as will he seen, the
spiny covering is relatively reduced, as
compared with the hulk of the nuts
within the hur. Contrast this speci-
men, with regard to its spiny covering,
with the specimens shown in the pre-
ceding pictures.

THE CHESTNUT 75

is the bur itself. A few of these hybrid seed-
Hngs were wholly spineless, the covering being
as smooth as that of the walnut. In the wild
state, the chestnut needs a spiny bur to protect
it from squirrels and birds. It has developed this
protective covering through natural selection,
just as the walnut has developed its thick coat
filled with bitter astringent juices.

The new partially spineless varieties have been
developed merely by selection from a hybrid seed-
ling that produced nuts showing a tendenc;^?' to
have fewer spines than ordinarily. Of course the
tendency to vary in this regard was accentuated
by hybridization as were other tendencies. Or,
stated otherwise and a little more technically, the
hybridization has made possible the segregation
of hereditary characteristics, bringing to the sur-
face factors for spinelessness that no doubt have
been transmitted as recessive traits for perhaps
thousands of generations.

No doubt difficulties will be involved in per-
fecting a race of chestnuts with smooth burs
similar to those that attend the development of
the thornless blackberry and the spineless cac-
tus. But there is reason to expect that the same
measure of success will be attained with the
chestnut that was attained with the other spine
bearers.

76 LUTHER BURBANK

A nut that combines all the good qualities of
the hybrid early-bearing chestnuts and in addi-
tion is borne in a spineless bur would have a
combination of qualities that should appeal to
the orchardist, and doubtless will do so when the
idea that chestnuts may form valuable commer-
cial crops gains wider appreciation.

THE HICKORY NUT — AND
OTHER NUTS

Improvements Which Have Been Made
AND Some Suggestions

THERE is perhaps no other wild plant pro-
ducing a really delicious food product that
has been so totally neglected by the culti-
vator as the shagbark or shellbark hickory tree
(Carya ovata).

The better varieties of hickory nuts always
find a ready sale in the market, and are highly
prized by the housekeeper. But such nuts as
find their way to the market are almost without
any exception the product of wild trees, gathered
usually by some wandering boy, and often re-
garded as the property of whoever can secure
them, regardless of the ownership of the land on
which the tree grows.

Even the new interest in nuts as food products
and as orchard crops that has been developed in
our own generation, has hardly as yet included
the hickory, or at least has not sufficed to bring

77

78 LUTHER BURBANK

the hickory tree from the woods and give it a
place within the territory of the orchardist.

The reason for this, doubtless, is that the
hickory is a tree of very slow growth, and that it
is also exceedingly difficult to propagate by
budding or grafting, or any other process except
from the seed.

The prospect of improving the product of a
tree that does not bear until it is ten or fifteen
years old, and that resists all efforts to force it to
early bearing, is not alluring, considering the
short span of human life. Yet we can scarcely
doubt that the hickory nut will soon be brought
within the ken of the plant experimenter,
and that there will ultimately be developed
nuts of very choice varieties, comparable in size,
probably, to the English walnut, and having a
quality that will place them at least on a par with
any other nut now grown in the temperate zones.

Even in the wild state the best of shellbark
hickories bear nuts of unchallenged quality. It
is a matter of course that these nuts can be
improved by cultivation and selective breeding.

Material for such selective breeding is fur-
nished abundantly by the ^vide variation of hick-
ories in the wild state, I had observed this varia-
tion in my boyhood days, just as I had noted the
variation in the chestnuts. The shagbark hick-

THE HICKORY NUT T9

ory, doubtless the best of the tribe, was quite
abundant along the banks of the Nashua Eiver
near my home, and I early learned to distinguish
the great difference in the products of the trees,
all of which, of course, were natural seedlings.

Among hundreds of trees there would be
scarcely two that bore nuts of precisely the same
appearance and quality.

Some of these hickory nuts were long and
slender, with prominent ridges; some were short
and compact and smooth in contour; some were
very flat and others were nearly globular. The
shell varied correspondingly in thickness, and the
meat varied greatly in whiteness and in flavor.

As a boy I knew very well which trees to seek
in the fall in order to secure nuts that were plump
and thin-shelled, with sweet and delicious meats.
It was only after the crop of these trees had been
gathered that inferior ones gained attention.

I knew very well, also, that different trees
varied greatly in productiveness, some bearing
nuts so abundantly each year that the ground
was literally covered when the nuts fell. Others
produced nuts very sparingly.

The trees that thus varied as to their fruit,
varied also in form, in size, and in rapidity of
growth. In a word, the wild hickories repre-
sented numerous varieties that a boy could differ--

HICKORY NUTS

There is marked variation in the size^
form, and quality of the nuts of differ-
ent hickory trees, even when growing
in the same neighborhood. Thus there
is good opportunity for selective breed-
ing, hut unfortunately the hickory is
of such slow growth that few experi-
menters have the courage to undertake
its development. The hickory does not
ordinarily hear nuts until it h ten or
twelve years old.

THE HICKORY NUT 81

entiate, whether or not a botanist might choose to
classify them as members of the same species.

All these varied members of the shagbark
tribe bear nuts that have an unmistakable indi-
viduality of flavor that distinguishes them from
any other nuts. Much as they varied in size and
degrees of excellence, ail of them were hickory
nuts, and could be mistaken for nothing else.
There were, however, other hickorj^ trees grow-
ing in equal abundance on my father's place,
though they differed essentially in appearance
from the shagbark nuts, that produced nuts of a
far less interesting character.

Hickories of this kind were locally called pig-
nuts. They are classified by the botanist as
Hicoria glabra, or Carya glabra.

The trees of this species are more upright and
sj^mmetrical, and of much more rapid growth
than the shagbark. The nut has a thin husklike
outer cover and a rather thick shell, and the meat
is difficult to remove, and is so ill-flavored that it
is little prized by anyone. Indeed, the nuts are
usually not gathered at all if shagbark hickories
of any quality can be obtained.

Nevertheless, there was great diversity among
the pignuts no less than among the hickories of
the better species. So with these also there is
doubtless opportunity of improvement through

82 LUTHER BURBANK

selective breeding, although up to the present
time few comprehensive experiments in this
direction have been made.

I have now little doubt that some of the variant
hickories that I knew as a boy were hybrids.

The two species of hickory are closely related
and I have reason to believe hybridize sometimes
in the wild state. I have received specimens of
hickory nuts from different parts of the United
States that certainly were natural Jiybrids and no
doubt such hybridization occurs not infrequently.
The hickory and the pecan also cross quite
readily.

It is probable that when the attempt is sys-
tematically made to develop the hickory nut, the
method of hybridizing the various species will be
employed to give still wider variation and to
facilitate a wider selection.

Some Enormous Western Hickories

There is a species of the hickory nut (C. lacini-
osa) that grows in the valleys of the Mississippi
and the Ohio that is of relatively enormous size.
The shell of this variety, however, is thick, and
the meat is not generally as fine in flavor as that
of the eastern shellbark hickory. But the size of
this wild variety gives assurance that under culti-
vation and selection the nut mav be made to take

THE HICKORY NUT 83

on proportions that will be very attractive.
Doubtless the comparatively small size of the
wild hickory nut has led to its neglect, although
we must recall that the walnut and the butternut
have also been neglected, notvvithstanding their
much larger size.

The chief reason why these nuts have been
overlooked, doubtless, is that the idea of making
nuts a cultivated crop, comparable to orchard
fruits, has only recently been conceived in Amer-
ica— or at ail events has only recently been given
general recognition.

There is reason to expect that the next genera-
tion will see somewhat the same rapid progress
in the art of developing the nut-bearing trees that
has been witnessed in the past three or four in the
development of orchard fruits. And certainly
the hickory nut, walnut, and butternut constitute
better native material than the wild plums, for
example, with the aid of which some of the finest
varieties of cultivated plums have been developed
within most recent years.

And it must not be forgotten that the work of
developing our native nuts has already passed
the experimental stage with regard to at least one
species. This is the nearest relative of the
hickory, a member of the same genus, which is
familiar as the pecan.

A PECAN TREE

The pecan is closely related to the
hickory, but is a much less hardy tree,
being confined to the Southern States.
It sometimes hybridizes with the hick-
ory in the wild state, and it is j^ossible
that new and hardy varieties of nuts
might be produced by selection among
the progeny of such a cross. The pecan
is rapidly assuming great importance
as a commercial nut.

THE HICKORY NUT 85

This nut grows only in the southern parts of
the United States, being far less hardy than the
other hickories. But what it lacks in hardiness it
makes up in quality, and it is pretty generally
regarded as the best nut that is grown in tem-
perate climates, not even excepting the English
walnut.

The relationship between the northern hick-
ories and the pecan is attested by the fact that in
the regions where the two tribes intermingle, they
hybridize freely.

I have received specimens of the nuts that were
undoubtedly hybrids between the shagbark hick-
ory and the pecan, and these inckided two or
three varieties that are among the finest nuts that
I have ever seen. Great improvements in the
pecan may result from hybridizing this nut with
the shagbark hickory.

The Cultivation of the Pecan

Even in its existing varieties, however, the
pecan nut has most attractive qualities ; and it has
the distinction of being the only native nut that
has hitherto been placed under cultivation on an
extensive scale and has attained commercial
importance.

We have alreadj'' referred to the economic
importance of this nut in an earlier chapter, and

86 LUTHER BURBANK

mention was there made of the fact that all the
pecans now under cultivation are directly derived
from a few wild varieties that have been propa-
gated by budding and grafting. It is only in
recent years that a method of grafting this nut
successfully has been developed, and as yet little
or nothing has been done toward improving the
wild varieties.

The fact that the nut in its wild state has such
attractive qualities gives full assurance that
under cultivation and development it will prove
of even greater value.

In selecting the best wild varieties for cultiva-
tion, attention has been paid to the matter of
early bearing, and in particular to persistent
bearing. So the orchards that have recently been
started are stocked with trees that may be ex-
pected to bear crops of nuts in about seven or
eight years, and that may be depended on to pro-
duce a crop each year with reasonable certainty.
But as to both time of bearing and regularity and
abundance of production, there is still oppor-
tunity for much improvement.

Doubtless improved varieties may be secured
through mere selection by raising seedlings from
the nuts grown on trees that were especially good
bearers. But it is probable, also, that the full
possibility of the pecan will not be realized imtil

THE HICKORY NUT 87

extensive series of crossing experiments have
been carried out.

Hitherto, no extensive experiments in hybrid-
izing the various species and varieties have been
carried out, although it is barely possible that
some of the wild varieties of pecans that have
been brought into the orchard were natural
hybrids.

It is to be hoped that experiments along this
line will be taken up in the near future, but, of
course, many years will be required before
notable results can be attained.

It is desirable, also, to cross the pecan with the
Japanese walnut. If hybridization could be
effected, it may be expected that trees of rapid
growth, similar to my hybrid walnuts, will be
produced. Not unlikely some varieties that tend
to produce nuts at a very early age, like my
hybrid chestnuts, may also appear as the result
of such combinations. And in any event it may
confidently be expected that new varieties will
give opportunity for wide selection, and for rela-
tively rapid improvement in the qualities of the
nuts themselves.

We have learned that the preeminent quali-
ties of our various cultivated fruits have largely
been given them by natural and artificial
crossing.

A VARIETY OF TROPICAL
NUTS

Here are a few specimens among
the many tropical nuts with which
we chance to he experimenting at the
present time. Just what will come of
these experiments it is not possible
to predict.

THE HICKORY NUT 89

The contrast between the tiny beach plum, for
example, and its gigantic descendant a few gen-
erations removed, offers an object lesson in the
possibilities of fruit development by crossing and
selection. And, for that matter, each and every
one of our improved varieties of orchard fruits
teaches the same lesson, even though the wild
progenitor is not at hand for comparison.

So there is every reason to expect that the wild
pecan will similarly respond to the efforts of the
plant developer, and that its descendants, a few
generations removed, will take on qualities that
even the most sanguine experimenter of to-day
would scarcely dare to predict.

One improvement that might probably be se-
cured without great difficulty is the introduction
of the quality of hardiness, so that the pecan
might be cultivated farther to the north. At
present the pecan does not produce profitably
as a rule, even in the coast counties of California,
as the nights are too cool, thus making the season
too short for the pecan to ripen its fruit. About
Vacaville they thrive much better, and the Sacra-
mento and San Joaquin Valleys, where the
nights are very warm, there is as good prospect
of growing the pecan profitably as anywhere else
in the world. But in the main the cultivation of
this nut has hitherto been restricted to the region

90 LUTHER BURBANK

of the Gulf of Mexico. It is obviously desirable
that so valuable a nut should be adapted to
growth in wider territories.

The fact that the pecan will hybridize with the
hardy hickory obviously points the way to the
method through which this end may be attained.

The peculiarity of the hickory and pecan that
is associated with their long life and slow growth,
is the fact that during their first year the seed-
lings make perhaps 99 per cent of their growth
under ground. They produce enormous roots
before they make any appreciable growth above
ground.

It is not unusual to find pecan seedlings an
inch high with roots from four to six feet in
length, and an inch in diameter at the widest
part.

Such a root system prepares the tree for -he
strong growth that characterizes it later; but a
seedling that makes only a few inches of growth
in the first season is a rather discouraging plant
from the standpoint of the cultivator. Doubtless
the pecan may be induced to change its habit in
this regard by hybridizing. The example of the
hybrid walnuts may be cited as showing that a
tree that is ordinarily slow of growth may be
made to take on the habit of very rapid growth
without relinquishing any of its other character-

THE HICKORY NUT 91

istics of hardiness and the production of valuable
timber.

The case of the Royal walnut shows also that
the tree that thus becomes a rapid grower may
also have the habit of enormous productivity.

If the pecan could similarly be stimulated to
increased rapidity of growth, and to a propor-
tionate capacity for nut bearing, this tree would
be a fortune-maker for the orchardist. And there
is no obvious reason why the pecan should not
have the same possibilities of development that
have been demonstrated to be part of the endow-
ment of its not very distant relative, the walnut.

Filberts and Hazelnuts

There is yet another native American nut as
hardy and as widespread as the hickory, that has
been even more persistently neglected. This is
the familiar hazelnut.

There are two familiar types of hazelnut that
often grow in the same region, and that resemble
each other so closely that the boys who gather the
nuts commonly do not discriminate between
them. One of these grows in husks with a long
beak, while the other has an mcurved husk that in
some cases does not fully cover the nuts. There
are sundry varieties of the two species that may
sometimes be found growing in the same patch.

CHINQUAPINS AND
CHESTNUTS

The chinquapin is a species of chest-
nut bearing very small nuts, which
have, however, the typical chestnut
form and quality. The picture, show-
ing chinquapins at the top and dwarf
hybrid chestnuts below, illustrates both
the similarity in form and the contrast
in size. The strains of the chinquapin
have been combined with those of the
other chestnuts in our complex hybrids.

THE HICKORY NUT 93

The fact of such variation in the wild species
is of course important from the standpoint of the
plant developer. We have learned from fre-
quent repetition that where there is variation
there is opportunity for selection and im-
provement.

The hazelnut has a European relative that is
familiar in America as the filbert. This is
merely a larger hazelnut, the qualities of the two
nuts both as to form and flavor being such as to
leave no question of their relationship. But for
some reason the European nut appears not to
thrive in this country. At all events it has never
been cultivated here on a commercial scale.

But for that matter the hazelnut has never
been cultivated on a scale commercial or other-
wise, unless in the most exceptional instances
when it has been brought into the garden by some
one rather as a curiosity than for any commercial
jDurpose. Yet the nut is a really valuable one,
and certainly it is one that may repay cultivation
and development.

Attempts have been made to grow the Euro-
pean filbert in Sonoma County, California, both
from seed and from division, but in all cases these
attempts have failed. The purple-leafed hazel-
nut grows and thrives here in California as it does
almost everywhere else in the United States.

94 LUTHER BURBANK

The species kno^wai as Corylus rostrata grows
wild rather abundantly in certain sections, but
it is a shy bearer.

There is no obvious reason vfhy the European
filbert should not be cultivated in this country
if a study is made of its needs as to soil and cli-
mate. Also, there is no apparent reason why it
should not be crossed with the American hazel-
nut. The result of such crossing, if we may draw
inferences from analog}^ would be the produc-
tion of a race of hazel-filberts of greatly increased
size, and of improved quality.

There is a so-called filbert, or Cliilean hazelnut,
that grows in South America. This plant bears
a nut similar to the filbert, but very much larger
in size and of far better quality. It is difficult,
however, to get a start in the cultivation of this
plant, as its seeds when brought to this country
ordinarily do not germinate. I have at last suc-
ceeded, however, in producing several young
trees. This is a beautiful evergreen tree, and
should prove of great value. In its own country
the young trees are highlj^ prized, selling for a
large sum when only a few inches high.

The European filbert grows readily from the
seed, but does not by any means come true. In-
deed, it proves exceedingly variable. But this,
of course, from the standpoint of the plant de-

THE HICKORY NUT 95

veloper could not be regarded as a fault. If
through selective breeding a variety could be pro-
duced that would bear regularly and abundantly,
and in particular if the size of the nuts was in-
creased, this would be one of the most important
of all nuts. As yet, however, a variety that is
adapted to growth in this country has not
been produced.

Some Foreign Possibilities

A nut that has come to be fairly well known
in the market in recent years, but which has
hitherto scarcely been grown in this country, is
the Pistachio. The tree on which this nut grows
is a member of the sumac family. The nuts are
small, but on the best trees are produced in
profusion.

In recent years the Department of Agricul-
ture of the United States Government has im-
ported a great number of plants and seeds of the
pistachio, w;hich are now being grown experi-
mentally, and which, it is hoped, will form the
basis of an extensive culture of this nut. The
experiment has not as j^'et progressed far enough
to make predictions possible as to the results. My
own experience with the nut is limited to the
growing of a few plants about thirty-five years
ago, which, after they had been cultivated for a

96 LUTHER BURBANK

dozen years or more were found not to be a fruit-
ing variety, and so were destroyed.

An Australian tree-shrub, a small tree called
the Macadamia ternifolia, has been introduced in
California in recent years, and is regarded as a
valuable acquisition. The tree is ornamental,
and bears a fruit that is regarded as of value. At
the center of the fruit is a round, delicious nut,
much larger than the ordinary filbert, sometimes
almost equaling a small English walnut, that is
fully equal in flavor to the best filbert or almond.

The Macadamia has proved hardy in this
vicinity, but requires a well-drained soil. A wet
winter is very destructive to the trees, unless they
are on dry, well- drained land.

There are several species of Macadamia, the
one that I have raised most extensively being
known as Macadamia ternifolia. This is a hand-
some evergreen, the leaves of which resemble
those of the magnolia, but are thinner and
rougher. The nuts are often an inch in diameter,
with rather thin but hard shells, and large, round,
delicious meats. Further tests will be necessary
before the climatic limitations of the Macadamia
are fully estabhshed. But in regions where it can
be grown, it must prove a nut of great value.

GROWING TREES FOR
LUMBER

Profitable Forestry

MANY years ago I had a talk with an
official connected with the Department
of Forestry, at Washington, in which I
suggested that the problems of his department
could best be met by the development of new
types of forest trees.

The official regarded the suggestion as
grotesque. In common with nearly everyone
else at that time he looked upon the tree as
a fixed product of nature, quite beyond the
possibilities of any change that man could
direct.

There was a time when Darwinism, although
it had pretty fully established itself in the scien-
tific world, was still on trial in the minds of the
people in general. And even those who accepted
the general truth of the Darwinian doctrine of
evolution for the most part did not realize that
evolution is a process that is going on about us

97

D— Bur. Vol. 8

98 LUTHER BURBANK

to-day along the same lines that have character-
ized it in the past.

To accept the doctrine of evolution at all re-
quired the overturning of the most fundamental
ideas. After the conception had been grasped
that in the past there had been eras of change
and development, it was a long time before even
the most imaginative scientist fully grasped the
notion that our age also is a time of change and
transition, and that the metamorphoses of plants
and animals through which new forms have
evolved in the past are being duplicated under
our eyes in our own time. And in particular, as
regards so massive and seemingly stable a struc-
ture as the tree, was it peculiarly difficult for
botanists to conceive of flexibility and propensity
to change, or to evolve, in the present time.

It is true that no very keen observation was
required to see that trees differ among them-
selves within the same species, but it is also true
that tliese divergences always fall within certain
limits and that on the whole they may be re-
garded as insignificant when weighed in the
balance against numberless characteristics in
regard to which the trees of a species seem
practically identical.

Take, for example, all the individuals that one
could observe of, let us say, the common shag-

LUMBER TREES 99

bark hickory, the variations of which were re-
ferred to in the preceding chapter. Attention
was called to the fact that the liickories observed
as a boy in the neighborhood of my New Eng-
land home differed in size and form, and that the
nuts that they bore were sometimes oval, some-
times rounded in form, sometimes rough, some-
times smooth, sometimes thick, and sometimes
thin of shell, and equally diversified as to the
quahty of their meat. But of course I should
be foremost to admit that all these diversities
were in the aggregate of minor significance in
comparison with the characteristics that even the
most divergent of the hickories had in common
each with all the rest. All were trees that at-
tained a fair size as trees go.

All have roots and trunks and branches of the
same general form and aspect — as much alike,
for example, as the bodies and arms and legs of
human beings.

All of them had leaves that could at once be
distinguished as being leaves of the hickory and
of no other tree.

All had bark with the same characteristic
whitish color and the same tendency to scale off
in layers; and although the bark of some was
much rougher than that of others, any fragment
of bark of any hickory tree could readily enough

lOQ LUTHER BURBANK

be distinguished as characteristic of the species,
and as not by any chance having grown on any
other kind of tree.

Then, too, if the hickory tree were felled and
cut into firewood, the texture and fiber of the
wood itself enabled anyone who glanced at it to
pronounce it liickory as definitely and with as
much certitude as if he had seen the tree
while living and in full leaf. No other wood
had quite the same whiteness as the pignut
hickory, or quite the same strength and elasticity
of fiber.

The Indians had learned this in the old days,
and had used the hickory of a preference always
in making their bows.

We boys, in our barbaric age, followed the
Indian's example. We knew that a bow of
hickory had elastic qualities that no other bow
could hope to match.

All in all, then, the hickory, despite the trivi-
alities of variation which are mentioned in the
preceding chapter, stands apart when we come
to examine it comprehensively, as a tree differ-
ing from all others and obviously entitled to
stand as a unified and differentiated genus.

And what is true of the hickory is no less true
of each and every species of tree in our forest.
Each walnut and oak and beech and birch and

LUMBER TREES 101

pine and linden and locust has a thousand points
of unison with every other member of its own
species, could we analyze its characteristics in
detail, for every conspicuous point of divergence.
If we consider minutise of detail as to size and
exact form of leaf and all the rest, no two in-
dividuals are identical. But if, on the other
hand, we take the broad view, it is clear that each
recognized species stands out in a place apart,
grouped with all the other members of its own
kind, and somewhat isolated from all other
species.

Such being the obvious fact, it was perhaps
not strange that the botanists and foresters of
twenty-five years ago looked almost with sus-
picion on anj^one who suggested that the differ-
ent species of forest trees might be interbred
and modified and used as material for building
of new species that would better fulfill the con-
ditions of reforestation than any existing species.
Even botanists who thought that they fully
grasped the idea of Darwinian evolution looked
askance at such a suggestion.

It seemed to bid defiance to the laws of
heredity, as the}^ understood them.

It appeared almost like an affront to Nature
herself to suggest that her handiwork might thus
be modified and improved.

102 LUTHER BURBANK

Materials for Selection

And it may well be questioned whether this
point of view would have been altered even to
this day had it not been for a conspicuous and
notable demonstration of the possibility of modi-
fying existing species of trees.

The demonstration was made when I took
pollen from the flower of a Persian walnut and
transferred it to the pistils of the California
black walnut.

Here were two species of trees so notably dif-
ferent in form and shape of leaf and fruit and
color of wood that not even the most casual
observer could confound them. They were not
even natives of the same continent, and no
botanist would claim that they were as closely
related as are many species of forest trees that
grow side by side in our woodlands and maintain
unchallenged their specific identity.

Yet when these two trees were cross-pollen-
ized they produced fertile nuts, and trees of a
new order grew from these fertile seeds.

The barriers between these not very closely
related species were broken down, and a new
type of forest tree was produced that differed
so markedly from either parent that no one
could confound it with either, and that excelled

LUMBER TREES 1103

both in the capacity for rapid growth so con-
spicuously as to seem to belong not merely to a
different species but to an entirely different tribe
of trees.

Here it is referred to only in connection with
the demonsirrvtion it gave of the possibility that
new types of forest trees might be developed by
hybridization and selection, quite as had been
claimed in the comment that aroused such skep-
tical and even sarcastic response from the pro-
fessional forester.

But after tliis demonstration had been made
it was no longer possible even for the hide-
bound conservative to deny the possibility that
forest trees, like other plants, are somewhat
plastic materials in the hands of the plant
developer.

And in course of time it came to be recog-
nized— though even now the knowledge has
scarcely been acted on — that the new idea given
by observation of the Royal and Paradox wal-
nuts could be utilized for the practical purpose
of supplying timber trees that might be expected
to restock our woodland in a fraction of the time
that would be required for the growing of trees
of unmodified wild species.

The row of Paradox walnut trees which at
fifteen years of age were two feet in diameter

THE WILD NUTMEG

The nutmegs belong to the genus
Mynstica. They are mostly tropical
plants and inust he cultivated under
glass if grown in northern regions.
This is a handsome evergreen, rare even
in California. It is in no way related
to the tropical nutmeg except in the
appearance of the fruit.

LUMBER TREES 105

and towered as beautiful and symmetrical trees
to the height of sixty feet, standing just across
the street from their Persian parent, which at
thirty-two years of age was nine inches in diam-
eter and perhaps forty feet high, afforded an
object lesson that even the most skeptical could
not ignore.

The Royal and Paradox hybrids and their fel-
lows must be called upon to restock the ravaged
timber lands of America. New hybrids must
be produced bj^ the union of varied species of
pines, oaks, and elms, and other timber and
ornamental trees, to give diversity to the
landscape and to supply different types of
wood for the uses of carpenter and cabinet-
maker.

The Royal and Paradox walnuts — as the
working model for a new order of mechanism —
a timber tree that shall be able to reforest a
treeless region in half a human generation
with a growth ready for the ax and saw of
the lumberman.

The Materials at Hand

In preparing this new material for the making
of forest trees, it will be possible, no doubt, to
bring trees from foreign lands, either for direct
transplantation or as hybridizing agents.

106 LUTHER BURBANK

Thus, as we have seen, one of the parents of
the Paradox walnut was a tree not indigenous to
America. But we may recall also that another
hybrid walnut, the Royal, which sprang from the
union of two indigenous species, the black wal-
nut of the eastern United States and the black
walnut of California, rivals the Paradox in its
capacity for rapid and gigantic growth.

So it is obvious that we are by no means re-
duced to the necessity of making requisition on
foreign lands for material with which to develop
our new races of quick-gi'owing forest trees.

But, on the other hand, the plant developer is
always willing to take his own where he finds
it. So if foreign species can be found that will
hybridize advantageously with our native species,
they will of course be welcomed. The reader
will recall that I have invoked the aid of num-
berless exotic fruit trees and vegetables and
flower bearers in the course of experiments in
plant development.

In some cases it will be possible to bring the
foreign species and acclimate them without
hybridization. This has been done with several
species of eucalyptus and acacias which have
been brought to California from Australia and
have proved a wonderful addition to the ranks
of our ornamental and timber trees.

LUMBER TREES 107

Everyone who visits California marvels at the
eucalyptus, and those of us who watch it year
after year marvel equallj?", because this tree has
capacity for growth that seems little less than
magical. No other trees, perhaps, ever seen in
America, with the exception of the hybrid wal-
nuts, have such capacity to add to their stature
and girth year by year as has the eucalyptus.

Moreover the eucalyptus may be cut for tim-
ber, its trunk severed only a few inches above
the ground; and it will send forth shoots that
dart into the air and transform themselves into
new trunks, each seeming to strive to rival the
old one. From the roots of the fallen giant
spring a galaxy of new giants, and each new
shoot assumes the proportions of a tree with
almost unbelievable celerity.

Add that the w^ood of the eucalyptus, notwith-
standing its rapid growth, is among the hardest,
and the remarkable character of this importation
from the Southern Hemisphere will be more
clearly realized.

Unfortunateh^ the eucalyptus is sensitive to
cold; otherwise it would at once offer a solution
of the problem of reforestation throughout the
whole of the United States.

Perhaps the eucalyptus may be made more
hardy by hybridizing and selection. At least we

108 LUTHER BURBANK

must heed the lessons it gives — in common with
the hybrid walnuts — as to the possibility that a
tree may show almost abnormal capacity for
rapid growth and at the the same time may pro-
duce lumber of the hardest texture.

Hitherto it has generally been supposed that
a tree of rapid growth would as a matter of
course produce soft timber. The hybrid wal-
nuts and the various eucalyptus trees serve to
dispel that fallacy.

Native Materials

The one fault of the eucalyptus, its inability
to stand extreme cold, is likely to be shared by
other trees that are imported from the sub-
tropical regions of our own hemisphere.

Although, as just suggested, it may be possible
to overcome this fault through selective breed-
ing, a long series of experiments will doubtless
be necessarj'- before this can be accomplished.
In the meantime we shall be obliged to place
chief dependence, in all probability, upon our
native stock of trees, hybridized perhaps with
allied species of Europe and northern Asia.

But, even so, there is no dearth of material.
America is richly stocked with forest trees.
Moreover these represent, so the geological
botanists assure us, a flora of very ancient origin

LUMBER TREES 109

which has shown its capacity to maintain itself
through successive eras during which there have
been tremendous cHmatic changes.

It follows that our native forest trees have in
their heredity the reminiscence of many and
widely varying environments. And by the same
token they have capacity for variation, and
therefore afford exceptional opportunity for
diversified development.

It is not necessary here to analyze in great
detail the qualities of the different groups of
forest trees. A brief summary of the character-
istics of a few of the more important groups
will serve to suggest the abundance of native
material, and to give at least an inkling as to
what may be expected, in the light of what was
revealed by the experiments with the walnuts, as
to possibilities of development of the different
tribes.

Of course the great family of cone bearers
stands in the foreground, represented by many
species, and known as the timber trees that give
us the the pine lumber which has everywhere been
the chief material for the carpenter, and an im-
portant foundation material for the cabinet-
maker.

We have but to recall the giant sequoias of
California, the largest trees existing anywhere in

110 LUTHER BURBANK

the world, to be made aware of the possibilities
of growth that are present in the racial strains of
the family of cone bearers. And even if these
giants shall be regarded as representatives of an
antique order that outlived its era, there remain
numerous pines and firs and hemlocks of mag-
nificent proportions to test the skill of the plant
developer for their betterment and there is
every probability that the coast redwood and the
Sierra big tree may be crossed, and a variety
produced that \^ill be adapted to new conditions
and which will outgrow all other trees.

Nothing could be easier than to cross-pollen-
ize members of this tribe, inasmuch as the pollen
is produced in the utmost profusion, and the
pistillate flowers are exposed when mature in
the nascent cones awaiting fructification. That
cross-fertilization occurs among the wild trees
through the agency of the wind is a matter of
course. Doubtless there are hybrid species of
pines and their allies, everywhere often unrecog-
nized or classified as good species. Quite large
forests mostly composed of hybrid cypresses are
found in California, and the oaks are known to
hybridize frequently; also the eucalyptus trees
of various species.

If study were made of individual conifers in
any forest region where different species are

LUMBER TREES 111

found, it would doubtless be possible to secure by
mere selection new races that would admirably
serve the purposes of the forester.

But of course still better results may be ex-
pected when pollenizing is carried out intelli-
gently, and the racial strains of different species
of conifers are blended and tested to find just
what are the best combinations.

It would not be strange if among the hybrids
there should be found one or more varieties that
will attempt to rival the Sequoia itself in giant-
ism, and that will quite outrival it in rapidity of
growth.

What the pines are as producers of white and
relatively soft wood of straight grain and uni-
form texture, the members of the great family
of oaks are as producers of wood of hard texture,
irregularl}^ grained and knotted, but capable of
iaking on a polish and serving almost every
essential purpose of the cabinetmaker.

The most famous of oaks, doubtless, is the
typical British species, but the American white
oak is a close second. Perhaps these two might
be hybridized. If the hybrid thus produced were
by any chance to show the capacity for rapid
growth that the hybrid walnuts have shown, while
retaining the hardness of texture of its parents,
as the hybrid walnuts do, the tree thus produced

112 LUTHER BURBANK

would by itself go far toward solving the prob-
lem of reforestation. The oaks quite frequently
hybridize in a state of nature.

Granted a producer of soft white wood such as
probably can be made by combining the white
pine with some of its allies; a producer of hard
cabinet wood such as a hybrid between the
British oak and the American white oak would
probably constitute; and the hybrid walnuts
already in existence as producers of woods of
the hardest and finest texture for cabinet pur-
poses— granted further that the other new trees
have the capacity for growth which the hybrid
walnuts show — and a triumvirate of trees would
be attained that could be depended on to go
forth and gladden the devastated hillsides and
valleys with trees that would jointly meet
every need of carpenter and cabinetmaker,
adding incalculable billions to the wealth of
our nation.

And of course we need not by any means con-
fine attention to these few most typical trees.
There are beeches and chestnuts that are near
relatives of the oak, each of which serves its own
particular purpose as the provider of wood hav-
ing unique quality. The beech and birch, for
example, are prized by the chairmaker for his
furniture, and for the making of carpenter tools

LUMBER TREES 113

and such like instruments. The chestnut makes
railroad ties that are thought to have no equal
and telegraph poles of requisite strength and
straightness.

Then there are other families that have their
valued representatives. The hickories have al-
ready been referred to. The maples must not be
overlooked, as they furnish highly prized woods
to the cabinetmaker. The tulip tree supplies a
light-colored wood used by cabinetmaker and
coach builder. The basswood or linden gives a
wood of peculiar fiber that meets the needs of
carvers and instrument makers. The willows
and their allies; various members of the birch
family; the button wood tree or sj^camore; and
the locusts and their allies are other native trees
that are of value as they stand and are well worth
developing.

The plant experimenter who works with these
different trees, being guided by their botanical
affinities, but making careful tests even where he
doubts the possibility of hybridization, will be
almost certain to have his efforts rewarded by the
production of some trees of new varieties that
will not only duplicate the unexpected qualities
of the hybrid walnuts, but will doubtless also
reveal unpredicted traits that will give them
added value.

114 LUTHER BURBANK

Patience will be required in carrying out the
work, for the tree is long-lived and experiments
in its development are quite different from those
in the development of annual plants. Yet some-
thing of the probable results of an experiment
can be judged even from observation of seedlings
in their first year. And by hurrying the hybrid
plants by the method of grafting, it will be pos-
sible greatly to shorten the generations.

Still, it is not to be denied that the work of
developing new races of trees is one that should
preferably command the attention of the younger
generation. In particular, it should be carried on
under government supervision, as part of the
great work of reforestation, the necessity for
which has only in recent j'^ears been clearly
realized by those in authority or by the com-
munity in general.

Messages from the Past

The oft-cited hybrid walnuts supply us with
tangible evidence of the possibility of developing
new races of trees having much-to-be-desired
qualities of rapid gi'owth, through hybridization
of the existing species.

Such evidence as has been suggested is more
forceful and convincing than any amount of
theoretical argument. But it may be of interest

LUMBER TREES 115

to support this evidence, and in doing so to reveal
additional reasons for belief that the same prin-
ciples will apply to other forest trees, by recall-
ing briefly the story of the vicissitudes through
which the existing trees have passed and through
which the diversified hereditary factors were im-
planted in their racial heredity.

A knowledge of this story we owe to the
geological botanists. They have sought dili-
gently in the rocks for fossil remains, and by
joint effort, searcliing all around the world,
have been able to reproduce a picture of the
main stor}'- of the evolution of existing forms
of vegetable life.

It is by recalling the story which they tell us,
and thus alone, that we are enabled somewhat
clearly to apprehend the possibilities of variation,
and through variation of so-called new develop-
ment— consisting essentially of the recombina-
tion and intensification of old ancestral traits —
that we have witnessed in the case of many tribes
of plants in the course of our experiments.

A brief resume of this story of plant life in the
past, with particular reference to our own flora,
will serve in the present connection to explain
why there is every warrant for believing that
each and every one of our forest trees contains
submerged in its heredity the potentialities of a

OLIVE TREES

Until somewhat recently the olive
has been grown chiefly in the region
of the Mediterranean. Of late years,
however, it has become a very impor-
tant commercial crop in California,
and the California olives have become
famous everywhere for their size and
good qualities in general. The picture
shows a typical hillside olive orchard
near Santa Rosa.

LUMBER TREES 117

development of which its exterior appearance
gives hut faint suggestion.

It appears that there is full warrant for the
belief that the modern flora originated in the
Northern Hemisphere, and probably in the
region of the North Pole. During the so-called
Mesozoic Age, the conditions of the Northern
Hemisphere were those that would nowadays be
described as tropical or subtropical. There were
palms growing in Europe and in Alaska, and
such species as the sequoia, the plane trees,
maples, and magnolias grew even at a relatively
late period as far north as the seventieth degree
of latitude. Remains of conifers have been found
within nine degrees of the pole itself; remains of
palms in Alaska coal measures, and of the
sassafras along the western coast.

At this early period the flora of the entire
Northern Hemisphere was, as regards its trees,
essentially comparable to the existing flora of
America to-day.

There were oaks and beeches scarcely dis-
tinguishable from existing species.

There were birches and planes and willows
closely related to the living species known as
Salix Candida.

There were laurels not unlike their modern
representatives, the sassafras and cinnamon tree,

118 LUTHER BURBANK

and myrtles and ivies that are represented by
existing descendants of allied forms.

And there were magnolias and tulip trees of
which the existing tulip tree of the United States
is an obviously direct and not very greatly modi-
fied descendant.

All these trees grew far to the north, and
luxuriated, as has been said, in a temperature
that we of to-day would call subtropical, for in
that day it is probable that the North Pole was
tilted far toward the sun, and that the conditions
that we now think of as tropical existed only in
the region of the pole itself.

Then there came the slow progressive period
of refrigeration. The tropical climate of the
pole was succeeded by an age of ice, and the
successive ice sheets slowly pressed southward,
driving the plants no less than the animals
before them along all parallels of longitude,
until the flowers and faunas that intermingled
in the arctic region were scattered along diverg-
ing paths to people the continents separated
by the wide stretches of the Atlantic and the
Pacific oceans.

It may seem strange to speak of plants fleeing
before the ice sheet. But it must be understood
that the plant is a migratory being, when consid-
ered as a race, notwithstanding the stationary

LUMBER TREES 119

habit of the individual. Plants piit forth mobile
seeds, and devise many strange ways of insuring
their wide dissemination. They are always seek-
ing new territories, and, granted proper condi-
tions, always finding them.

And it is only such plants as could migrate
with relative celerity that were able to maintain
existence and escape extermination by fleeing
southward when the era of cold succeeded to the
warm era in the arctic regions and when the arctic
chill gradually spread southward and encom-
passed all the higher and middle latitudes of the
Northern Hemisphere.

The plants that chanced to flee southward
along the land surface that we now term Europe
found their further flight checked when they
reached the stretches of mountains extending
east and west that we now term the Alps. Here
thousands of species made a last stand and ulti-
mately perished.

But the plants that were fortunate enough to
choose the other avenues of escape, passing down
across the land surfaces that we now term
America and Asia, were not obstructed in their
flight. The long ranges of the Appalachians and
Rockies and Sierras in particular served, as it
were, to guide the line of march and aid the
flight.

120 LUTHER BURBANK

So the American species made their way to the
region of the Gulf, and some of them even to the
southern continent. And when the ice sheet
finally receded, they were able to make their way
northward again, though never to their former
habitat; whereas Europe was treeless until the
plant life of Asia spread westward to repeople it.

Such is the explanation that the paleobotanist
gives us of the fact that the indigenous vegeta-
tion of America to-day is closely similar to that
'svhich stocked the subarctic regions of the entire
Northern Hemisphere in the geological period
known as the Mesozoic — a period that seems
infinitely remote when measured in terms of
human history, yet which in the scale of time as
measured by the geologist is relatively recent.

Such trees as the sequoia, we are told, are sur-
vivors of that ancient regime that chanced to find
hospitable shelter on the western slopes of the
Sierras. Similarly the tulip tree of the east, with
the blossoms that seem anomalous for a tree,
should be regarded as the souvenir of a past age
— a lone representative of vast tribes that once
flourished in tropical luxuriance in regions that
now give scant support to moss and lichen and
stunted conifers.

All in all, we are told, the remaining vegeta-
tion of to-daj^ varied though it seems, is but a

LUMBER TREES 121

scant reminiscence of that of the period preced-
ing the ice ages. Only a few species, relatively
speaking, were able to make their migration
rapidly enough to escape destruction. These
included a certain number, like the sequoia and
the tulip tree, that were able to reach coigns of
vantage that permitted them to exist without
changing essentially from their sun-loving habit.
But in the main the tribes that escaped destruc-
tion were those that were more plastic and
developed a hardiness that enabled them to
withstand extremes of temperature not far
beyond the limits of the ice sheet. Others
made their way northward again when the ice
sheet receded.

And as the climate of ensuing ages, after the
successive periods of intense refrigeration, every-
where retained, throughout the central and east-
ern portions of America, curious reminiscences
of both the tropical and the arctic, the plants that
finally repopulated the devastated territories
were those that had learned, through the strange
vicissitudes of their ancestors, to thrive where the
thermometer in summer might rise to the one
hundred degree mark, and where in winter the
mercury might freeze.

Such are the conditions under which pines and
oaks and willows and beeches and black walnuts

122 LUTHER BURBANK

and allied trees exist to-day in the regions of
northern America where they flourish.

They can withstand the glare of a tropical sun
in summer because their ancestors reveled in a
tropical climate. And they can withstand
equally the arctic cold of winter because their
ancestors of other ages were forced to subsist
under arctic conditions.

The versatile trees that, thanks to the racial
recollection of these vicissitudes, can adapt them-
selves to the inhospitable conditions of our mod-
ern climate are but dwarfed representatives of
ancient races of giants. To presence life at all
it was necessary for them to conserve their
energies; and gigantic growth is feasible only
for plants that can send their roots into rich,
well-watered soils and can likewise draw sus-
tenance perennially from the atmosphere, un-
hampered by long periods of dormancy when
life itself is threatened.

But these dwarfed races carry in their germ
plasm, submerged but not eliminated, factors
for giant growth; factors for such development
as would adapt them to life in the tropics ; factors
also for such development as would adapt them
for life in the arctics.

Their hereditary factors, in a word, are as
varied as have been their past environments. So,

LUMBER TREES 123

what each tree is now exteriorh^ gives us but
faint suggestion of what it might be were its
unrealized hereditary possibilities to be made
actualities.

So far as we know at present, the only way in
which these unrealized possibilities may in any
conspicuous measure be brought out is by
hybridizing species that have so far diverged
that they lie almost at the limits of affinity. By
such union of hereditary tendencies that have
long been disunited, racial traits that are reminis-
cent of the old days when the Northern Hemi-
sphere enjoyed a tropical climate may be revived,
and a tendency to repeat a gigantic growth that
characterizes ancestors vastly remote will be
revealed.

Such is the explanation of the strange and
otherwise inexplicable phenomena of gigantism
manifested by my hybrid walnuts. And such is
our warrant for believing that all other species
of native trees have possibilities of develop-
ment that are unrevealed in the exterior appear-
ance of their present-day representatives and
that can be revealed, so far as we know, only by
hybridization.

TREES WHOSE PRODUCTS ARE
USEFUL SUBSTANCES

Sugar ^Iaples and Other Trees

EVERYONE who had the good fortune to
be born in New England and to live in
the country will treasure among the most
pleasant reminiscences of his boyhood the recol-
lection of his first visit to a "sugar bush."

The sweet sap drawn through a magic spigot
from a hole in the tree trunk; the boiling kettle
in which the sap was transformed into the most
delectable of syrups; the transformation of the
syrup into a wax of quite matchless flavor by
pouring it on the snow — these are things that
have no counterpart. They must be experienced
to be appreciated, and no one who has experi-
enced them is likely to forget them.

To those who have not been privileged to visit
a sugar bush, the product of the maple is usually
known only in its ultimate crj^stallized form in
which it constitutes a brownish sugar of charac-
teristic and delectable flavor. And I regret to

125

126 LUTHER BURBANK

say that many people who suppose themselves
familiar with this product know it only in
a diluted and adulterated form in which
only a suggestion remains of the real maple
quality.

Nor does there seem to be much prospect of
improvement in this regard, for the maple tree
is seldom or never cultivated for the garnering
of its unique crop. The relatively small quantity
of maple sugar that finds its way to the market
is the product of trees that chanced to grow in
the woodland and they are reserved not so much
as sugar producers but as ultimate material for
lumber. Yet maple sugar is a sweet of acknowl-
edged quality, and one that deserves a larger
measure of recognition as a commercial product
than has hitherto been given it.

PossibljT" the time may come when maple trees
will be cultivated for the production of sugar.
But it is hardly likely that such cultivation of
the maple can ever constitute a significant in-
dustry, because the product of a single tree is
relatively insignificant.

It is only the fact that the sugar maple has
wood of such quality of fiber as to make it valu-
able for the cabinetmaker that could justify
the cultivation of these trees as a commercial
enterprise.

TREE PRODUCTS 127

On the other hand, the amateur orchardist
might do far worse than to set a row of "sugar"
maples, as ornamental trees about the borders of
his orchard or gardens, regarding the capacity
of the tree to produce a certain amount of sugar
as an incidental attraction that adds to the value
of a tree that otherwise is deserving because of
its beauty of form and general attractiveness.

The production of the sweet sap that has made
the sugar maple famous gives this particular
species exceptional interest among the members
of a very meritorious family. Just why this spe-
cies should have developed the capacity to pro-
duce so sugary a sap in such abundance, it would
perhaps be difficult to say. A certain amount
of sap may be drawn from the tissues of other
maples, and even from the walnut and butter-
nut, and in diluted form from the birches; but
only the sugar maple produces sap of such qual-
ity as to be of real value.

When the Sap Runs Best

And of course it is well known that the sugar
maple itself has a "flow" of sap that is worth
tapping, for a very brief period each season,
just as winter is merging into spring. It is tra-
ditional at least among the makers of maple
sugar that the sap runs best in those days of

128 LUTHER BURBANK

early spring when the sun shines brightly while
there is a cover of snow on the ground. At this
time, all that is necessary is to bore an auger
hole in the trunk of the tree, and insert a
spigot or grooved stick to guide the sap into
the bucket.

A single tree may be tapped in several places,
and a bucket of sap will run from each spigot
in the course of a day.

The sap itself is a clear, watery fluid, the
sweet taste of which gives assurance of the
quality of sugar it contains. By boiling the sap
to evaporate the surplus water, a thick sirup
is produced which crystallizes on cooling, pro-
ducing the maple sugar of commerce.

Nothing is added to the sap and nothing but
part of its watery content is taken away from
it — that is to say, if it is honestly made. The
sugar as the maple supplies it, is a perfect
product requiring no dilution and calling for no
elaborate process of manufacture.

Perhaps it is not so much matter for surprise
that maple trees produce this sweet sap in such
abundance as that other trees do not more gen-
erally imitate its example. For the function of
the sugar in supplying nourishment for the
young buds before the leaves are sufficiently
expanded to begin their work of sugar manu-

TREE PRODUCTS 129

facture is clearly enough understood. All other
deciduous trees must supply nutriment in similar
way to their growing buds.

But in the case of other trees, either the sap
will not flow in abundance or it is of such
quality as to have no value.

The manner of production of the sap may be
more or less accurately inferred from what we
have already learned of plant physiology. We
know that the leaves of the tree metamorphose
water and carbon into sugary substances which
in turn are transferred to various parts of the
plant to be stored, usually in the form of starch.
In the case of the maple, we may assume that the
carbohydrates, as they are manufactured in the
leaf laboratories, are transferred in the current
of sap that flows downward from the leaves
through branches and trunk as a countercurrent
in the cambium until it finally finds its way to the
roots of the tree and is there stored for the
winter.

When spring comes and it is time for the new
leaf buds to put forth, the supplies of nourish-
ment are retransformed into soluble sugars, dis-
solved in the water that is taken in by the root-
lets, and transferred from cell to cell and along
the little canals in the wood under the cambium
layer of the bark, until they reach the twigs

E — Bur. Vol. 8

THE CALIFORNIA CHINQUA-
PIN AS AN ORNAMEN-
TAL TREE

This beautiful specimen of the wild
California chinquapin grows on our
grounds at Sehastopol. The California
chinquapin tree has obvious merits of
its own as an ornamental shrub, as
this picture clearly testifies. It is
evergreen, with foliage of golden
color underneath, and is appropriately
named Castanea chrysophylla.

TREE PRODUCTS 131

where the leaf buds they are to nourish are
located.

It is doubtless the so-called "root pressure"
(which we have been led to interpret as due to
osmosis ) forcing the sap upward that causes it td
flow from the wound in the tree made by the
auger. To what extent the interference with the
supply of nourishment that was being convoyed
to the buds retards their development, might be
interesting matter for observation.

But this is something that does not greatly
concern the sugar maker, and to which he doubt-
less never gives a thought.

It is also interesting to conjecture whether it
might be possible by selective breeding to pro-
duce a variety of sugar maple that will furnish
sap in exceptional quantity and of unusual qual-
ity. The case is obviously different from that of
the sugar prune or the sugar beet, both of which
have been trained to increase their sugar content.

But there is no doubt that diif erent individual
sugar maples differ widely in their sap produc-
ing, or at least in their sap rendering, quality.
Presumably the difference may be due to the
size of the root system. But so far as I know
there are no accurate observations on the subject,
nor has anything been done to determine whether
a better race of sugar maples could be developed.

132 LUTHER BURBANK

Other Plant Juices

The extraordinary plant laboratories that
manufacture sugars out of water and air are
capable of transforming these sugars into many
unusual substances, differing in character with
the constitution of the particular plant.

There are certain classes of juicy exudates,
however, which appear to have characteristics
that make them useful to plants of many types.
Prominent among these are the milky juices
that when dried constitute rubber, and the
resinous ones that constitute tars and resins
and turpentine.

Nothing could be physically much more dis-
similar than a piece of rubber and a teaspoonful
of oil of turpentine.

But the chemist tells us that each of these sub-
stances is composed exclusivelj'" of the two ele-
ments carbon and hydrogen; the only diiference
being that the turpentine molecule has ten atoms
of carbon and sixteen of hydrogen, whereas the
molecule of rubber has eight carbon atoms and
seven atoms of hydrogen.

Just how the elements are compounded, and
just why the}'' should make up substances of such
unique characteristics when brought together in
these particular proportions, even the chemist

TREE PRODUCTS 133

does not know. Nor, until recently, was he able
to duplicate the feat of building up these com-
plex molecules, even though he is perfectly-
familiar with the general properties of the atoms
of both carbon and hydrogen.

In very recent years, however, chemists have
been at work on the problem of compounding the
atoms in such a way as to get them together in
the right combination to produce organic sub-
stances. And, although this work is only at its
beginning, a good measure of success has been
attained.

In particular, the chemists of Germany and
England have recently succeeded in combining
carbon and hydrogen in the proportion of eight
atoms of the former to seven of the latter and
thus have produced an artificial rubber that is not
merely an imitation rubber but is as truly pure
rubber as if it had been produced in the cellular
system of a plant.

The artificial product may be said to be some-
what more pure than the natural, inasmuch as
the latter is more or less contaminated by ex-
traneous products.

Reference has elsewhere been m^ade to the
famihar feat of the chemist through which the
famous dyestuffs, indigo and madder, have been
manufactured in the laboratory, and manufac-

134 LUTHER BURBANK

tured so cheaply as to compete successfully with
the natural product of the indigo and madder
plants. What was a large plant industry only a
few years ago has thus ceased to have impor-
tance. The indigo plant is still cultivated in the
east, but the entire industry has been changed by
the discoveries of the chemist.

Only a few years ago a plant known as the
tarweed {Madia), to which we have had occa-
sion to refer in another connection, was gathered
and its juices extracted for the making of mad-
der. But it would not pay to undertake this
work now, since the chemist has learned how to
make madder from coal tar and hence has sub-
stituted for a plant industry an enterprise asso-
ciated with the manufacture of gas.

It will doubtless be a long time before the man-
ufacture of artificial rubber m.akes correspond-
ing encroachments on the industry of manu-
facturing rubber from the plant juices. Still
it is quite within the possibilities that this
may come to pass in the course of the coming
generation.

In the meantime, the rubber industry is a great
and important one, and the principal trees that
supply the juices that on evaporating constitute
rubber are cultivated in vast plantations in vari-
ous tropical regions. Moreover rubber is gath-

TREE PRODUCTS 135

ered from wild trees of several species, although
in recent years the cultivated trees have largely
been depended upon to meet the growing needs
of the industry.

Trees of the genus Hevea are the most im-
portant source of rubber. But there are many
other trees, the juices of which contain the essen-
tial constituents of rubber in the right com-
bination, and many of these have commercial
possibilities.

I have referred in another connection to my
experiments with tropical plants of the genus
Asclepias, relatives of the familiar milkweed.

Tentative experiments have been undertaken
to discover whether these plants might be devel-
oped to a stage that would make them commer-
cially valuable as producers of rubber. The re-
cent discoveries of the chemist make experiments
in this line somewhat less valuable than they
hitherto seemed. Yet the demand for rubber is
So great, in these days of electricity and auto-
mobiles, that there seems just now little danger
of overstocking the market. And if a plant
could be developed that could be grown in tem-
perate regions, and that would produce the rub-
ber-forming juices in adequate quantity, such a
plant would constitute a very valuable acquisi-
tion for a long time to come, even should natural

136 LUTHER BURBANK

rubber ultimately be supplanted by the labora-
tory product.

The method of gathering the so-called latex or
milky juice, which is virtually rubber in solution,
is curiously similar to the method of obtaining
the sap of the sugar maple. Indeed the latex
may be drawn in precisely the same way, by bor-
ing a hole in the trunk of the rubber tree and
inserting a grooved stick along which the juice
will run into a receptacle. But the cultivators
are not usually content with so slow a method,
and there are various methods of tapping the
tree that expose a larger surface of the cambium
layer and thus extract the milky juices in larger
quantity.

In the case of the wild trees it is not unusual
for the natives of Mexico, Central America, and
South America to make a series of V-shaped
incisions in the bark of the tree, placing a recep-
tacle at the point of each "V" and thus securing
a relatively enormous amount of fluid regardless
of the fact that they jeopardize the life of the
tree itself.

Of course cultivated groves or plantations are
tapped in a more conservative way, but the prin-
ciple involved is everywhere the same.

The latex of the rubber tree is comparable to
the sugary sap of the maple. It appears to be a

TREE PRODUCTS 137

mere accident that this juice has the property of
coagulating to form the substance called rubber
which we now find so important. But this sub-
stance, obviously, as man uses it, has small place
in the economy of the plant. Coagulated latex
would serve no better purpose in the tissues of
the rubber tree than would coagulated blood in
the veins of a human being.

Oils and Resins

Of course the latex of the rubber tree might
exude when the tree received an accidental in-
jury, as from a falling limb, and in such case it
would be advantageous to the tree to have the
juice coagulate, just as coagulated blood is use-
ful to a wounded man. In each case coagulation
prevents excessive hemorrhage.

Possibly this may explain the quality of the
latex, its capacity to coagulate having been de-
veloped through natural selection. But vmder
normal conditions, at least, the latex is always
fluid, and its properties are little more like those
of rubber than are the properties of the maple
tree like those of sugar.

Of course the same thing is true of the plant
juices that when dried or partially evaporated
constitute the various gums and resins. As
manufactured in the tree they are transformed

THE VARIEGATED BOX
ELDER

Although popularly known every'
where as an elder, this is really a maple,
listed by the botanist as the ash-leaved
maple {Acer negundo). It is a hardy
tree of rapid growth, much prized for
planting in semiarid regions. There
are several varieties, giving oppor-
tunity for experiments in selective
breeding.

TREE PRODUCTS 139

sugar products, and they are always in solution.
Only when the juices are exposed to the air, as
when they exude from an injured surface, do
they coagulate to form the gummy or resinous
substances that become articles of commerce.

In some cases the exudate may be separated
into two or more commercial constituents. Such
is the case with the juice of those trees that pro-
duce turpentine. The liquid that flows from the
tree, corresponding to the sap of the maple and
the latex of the rubber tree, may be evaporated
or distilled in such a way as to be changed in
part to a solid gummy or even vitreous substance,
and in part to the somewhat volatile fluid familiar
as turpentine.

Turpentine, unlike rubber, was known to the
ancients, and was an extensive article of com-
merce in classical times. The original tree from
which it was obtained is known as the terebinth
tree. It is a native of the islands and shores of
the Mediterranean and western Asia.

There are many trees, however, the sap of
which has this resinous property, including most
members of the family of conifers. The prin-
cipal supply of common turpentine, in Europe,
is obtained from the so-called sea pine, grown
largely in France. The Scotch fir, the Norway
pine, and the Corsican pine are other sources.

140 LUTHER BURBANK

In the United States the swamp pine and the so-
called loblolly trees that gi'ow in the swamps of
North and South Carolina and Georgia, are
the chief source of the commercial turpentines,
although various other species are more or less
utilized.

A gum of peculiar quality that is highly
prized for some industrial purposes is obtained
from the balsam fir {Abies balsamea), and is
known as Canada balsam.

Hitherto, the producers of turpentine have
been found in the wild state, and no one, prob-
ably, has given a thought to the possibility of
developing races of pines that produce an ex-
ceptional quantity of the resin and turpentine-
forming juices. But with the modern tendency
to apply scientific methods to forestation in gen-
eral, doubtless the question will ultimately arise
as to whether the turpentine trees may not be
improved along with the timber producers.

That trees of the same species differ quite
radically in the amount of the valuable juices is
certain, so there would appear to be no reason
why it may not be possible to develop varieties
of trees that will be conspicuous for this quality,
just as other trees have been improved as to their
powers of growtl jv their capacity to produce
abundant crops of fruit.

TREE PRODUCTS 141

Varied Products of the Plant
Laboratory

An incidental use of the resinous exudate of
various trees is the production of chewing gum.

The habit of gum chewing appears to have
originated or at least to have gained chief popu-
larity in America in comparatively recent times.
The resin that exudes from the spruce was the
substance that was chiefly used, under the name
of spruce gum, until somewhat recently. But of
late years the chewing gum industry has reached
proportions that make it impossible to meet the
demand from this source. And it has been found
that ordinarj^ resin, combined with sugar and
linseed oil, with some flavoring added, serves the
purpose of the original spruce gum so the latter
is now seldom seen in the market. More re-
cently chicle, a gummy substance which exudes
from several tropical trees, has been imported in
great quantities, and is now supplanting all other
sources of gum.

The supplying of turpentine and its products
gives the conifers high rank among trees that
produce commercial by-products of great im-
portance. But with the exception of the pines,
the trees that produce really important exudates
or oils or chemicals are indigenous to the tropics.

142 LUTHER BURBANK

or at least are confined to the warm temperate
zone. I have thought many times in recent years
that I should like to have a plant laboratory in
the tropics for testing tropical plants as to pro-
duction of useful commercial products, and for
development of improved varieties of plants the
products of which are already utilized.

It would be worth while, for example, to make
very extensive experiments by way of testing
the qualities of the different trees that deposit
in their bark the bitter compounds known as
alkaloids, a galaxy of which are prized for their
medicinal properties. These are very complex
combinations of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and
nitrogen. That is to say, they have the same con-
stituents as protoplasm itself and differ from the
gum and resins that we have just been consider-
ing in that each molecule contains at least one
atom of nitrogen.

The sugars, it will be recalled, occupy an in-
termediate place, inasmuch as they, unlike the
resins and rubber, contain oxygen ; but they con-
tain no nitrogen. The formulae given by the
chemist for the different alkaloids are intricate
but they differ from one another only in the mat-
ter of a few more or a few less atoms of one or
another of the four constituents of which they are
all made up.

TREE PRODUCTS 143

There is, for example, only the difference of
one atom of carbon and of four atoms of hydro-
gen between a molecule of quinine and a mole-
cide of strychnine. Considering that the mole-
cules comprise in the aggregate not far from
fifty atoms, in each case, this discrepancy seems
trifling. That the two drugs should have such
utterly different effects upon the human system
is a mystery that will be solved only when a much
fuller knowledge is gained as to the physiological
processes than anyone has at present.

But the plant developer, of course, has no con-
cern with this aspect of the subject. What in-
terests him is the knowledge that different races
of cinchona trees, for example, are known to
vary greatly as to the proportion of commercial
alkaloid deposited in their bark. And the same
is true of most or all other producers of commer-
cial alkaloids.

Apparently there is a splendid field, then, for
the plant experimenter, could he establish a labo-
ratory and experiment garden in the tropics, in
the development of improved races of cinchona
and almost innumerable other suppliers of medic-
inal alkaloids. The monetary return from such
an enterprise would probably be larger than that
which usually rewards the efforts of the plant
developer in temperate zones, because the field is

AN ACACIA TREE IN BLOOM

There are more than a hundred
species of acacias introduced into Cali-
fornia from the Southern Hemisjjherej
and many of them have become very
popular. Their value as ornamental
trees is well suggested by this photo-
graph. Unfortu7iately, they are not as
hardy as could be desired, although
they thrive almost everywhere in
California. One of the Afncan spe-
cies of acacia yields the gum arabic of
commerce.

TREE PRODUCTS 145

virgin, and because there is no present possibility
of competition outside the tropics.

It remains to be said that there are a few other
trees and shnibs of our own latitude that may
advantageously command the attention of the
plant developer for the improvement of quantity
or quality of their products.

It seems not unlikely that the horse chestnut,
or buckeye, could be so educated as to become a
profitable starch producer. At present this tree
produces an abundant crop of nuts, but these are
worthless because they contain a bitter principle
that makes them inedible. Yet the nut of the
buckeye is very starchy and if the bitter principle
could be eliminated without too much expense
there is no reason why it should not prove both
wholesome and nutritious. The Indians grind
the nuts to make meal. When this is soaked
in water the poisonous principle is partially re-
moved, and the residue is cooked and eaten.

I have experimented somewhat in testing the
tremendously productive western buckeye as to
its possibilities of improvement. As long ago as
1877 I began work on this tree, and continued
the experiments in a small way for a number of
years. It was observed that there was great
variation as to productiveness of trees, as to size
of nuts, and also as to bitterness of the nuts them-

146 LUTHER BURBANK

selves, and I am convinced that it would be pos-
sible to develop a variety in which the bitter prin-
ciple would be greatly reduced in amount and
perhaps altogether eliminated, and that at the
same time a nut having an even higher starch
content could be developed.

It has been found possible with the South
American plant called the cassava to utilize roots
that contain a poisonous principle for the pro-
duction of so important a commercial product as
tapioca. It is not unlikely that the nuts of the
horse chestnut, if developed until it had a still
higher starch content, could be utilized in some-
what the same waj^, even though the bitter prin-
ciple was not entirely eliminated.

There are some members of the laurel family,
also, that produce commercial products that
make them worthy of attention. The camphor
tree is too tender to be grown in the northern
latitudes, but its relative, the sassafras, is a com-
mon tree throughout the Eastern States, thriving
even in New York and New England. Its bark
furnishes the characteristic flavoring that is used
for perfuming soaps and for similar purposes.
The production of the sassafras would not con-
stitute a significant industry under any circum-
stances, doubtless, yet there would be a measure
of scientific interest in testing its capacities for

TREE PRODUCTS 147

improvement, and not unlikely new uses would
be found if it were available in larger quantity.

Another tribe that furnishes a product of a
unique quality is that represented by a familiar
wild shrub known in the Eastern States as the
waxberry or candleberry (Myrica carolinensis)
and sometimes also spoken of as the bayberry
owing to the fragrance of its leaves.

This shrub bears an abundance of small berries
from which may be extracted a quantity of hard
greenish fragrant wax, which was formerly much
prized for the making of candles, and which has
a value for the other uses to which wax is put.

Many years ago, while traveling in the East, I
found a candleberry bush that was of compact
growth and that produced an unusualty large
crop of waxy berries. Seed was collected and
brought to California, and for sever^-l years it
was worked upon, until by selection a variety
was developed that produced at least ten times
as many berries and ten times as much wax as
the average wild plant. At the same time T
experimented with a Japanese member of the
genus known as M. rubra, and also with the
California species, 31. californica, which is a
tree growing forty to fifty feet in height.

The endeavor was made to cross the three
Myricas in the hope of producing new varieties

148 LUTHER BURBANK

of value, but did not succeed, no doubt because
the attempt was not carried out with sufficient
pertinacity. The California species produces a
wax of much darker color than the eastern one,
but of about the same degree of hardness. I
still have several fine blocks of wax that were
produced from these shrubs and trees during the
time of the experiment. Although not success-
ful in combining the different candleberry
shrubs, the experiments were carried far enough
to show the possibility of great improvement by
mere selection. If there were a market for the
wax, the plant might be well worth improving.
These plants were finally destroyed to make
room for other shrubs. This is another case in
which a product of intrinsic value has failed to
find a market, largely, no doubt, because the
plant that produces it has hitherto not been
brought under cultivation, and hence has not
produced a sufficient crop to bring it to the atten-
tion of the public and to create a market.

It would not be surprising, however, if the
candleberry should be thought valuable enough
in future for development and cultivation on an
extensive scale. For the wax that it produces
is of unique quality, and it is almost certain
to be found of value in connection with some
commercial industry.

TREES AND SHRUBS FOR
SHADE AND ORNAMENT

Some Miscellaneous Tree Experiments

DOUBTLESS the most interesting tree in
the world is the Sequoia. The mere fact
that this is the most gigantic of all exist-
ing trees gives it distinction. But it has added
interest because it represents a link with the
remote past.

Of course it might be said that any existing
vegetable represents a link with the past, since
every race has its lines of ancestry tracing back
to primordial times. But the Sequoias represent
the past in a somewhat different sense, inasmuch
as it has maintained more fixedly the traits of its
remote ancestors than has been done by any
other tree, probably, that now grows in the
Northern Hemisphere, with the possible excep-
tion of the tulip tree, which represents a quite
different type of vegetation.

The story of the Sequoia's fight for life during
the remote geological ages when the climate of

149

150 LUTHER BURBAIS^K

the Northern Hemisphere was changing, has
been outlined in an earlier chapter. Could we
know the details of the story, we should doubtless
find that the ancestors of the Seqiioia migrated
southward before the chilling blasts of successive
glacial epochs, and made their way northward
again in the intervening periods. And of course
the present age may represent merely another of
these interglacial epochs, during which the
Sequoia has carried its return march along the
coast to about the fortieth parallel of latitude.
It maintains in this location its proud position
as the one champion of the ancient traditions.
And perhaps it will still maintain them in some
remote epoch of the future when another ice age
has driven man from the Northern Hemisphere
and reduced the civilization of the twentieth
century to a half-forgotten tradition.

Be that as it may, the Sequoias stand to-day
as sister giants in an age of pygmies. Individual
trees that are still young according to the reckon-
ing of their tribe were gigantic trees when
Columbus discovered America.

And Sequoias that are moderately old have
witnessed the ceaseless change of the seasons
since the period, perhaps, when Moor and Chris-
tian were battling for supremacy in Europe in
the dark age that preceded the segregation of the

TREES AND SHRUBS 151

modern nations of Europe. The patriarchs of
the race were living in the days that saw the
building of the Egyptian pyramids and many
of these now in the prime of life and vigor were
growing when Moses walked the earth.

A tree with such racial traditions and with
such individual representatives is surely entitled
to be considered the most interesting tree in the
world.

Whoever has camped in a primeval forest of
Sequoias will attest that merely to enter into the
presence of these colossal antediluvians is to
experience an almost overwhelming sense of
their grandeur. And it is the common experience
that this feeling of awe grows day by day and
becomes overpowering if you linger like a lost
pygmy in the shadows of the giants.

From our present standpoint the interest in
the Sequoias hinges on the possibility of growing
seedlings or transplanting saplings for orna-
mental purposes in the parks and fields. It is
rather strange that the attempt to do this has
not been carried out more extensively. Curiously
enough, the redwoods are grown more in Eng-
land than thej'- are anywhere in America outside
the regions where they are indigenous. But
doubtless the climatic conditions account for this.
The trees thrive fairly well in the relatively mild

A YOUNG SEQUOIA
GIGANTEA

This beautiful evergreen tree is a
young Sequoia about six years old,
grotcing on my home place. Note the
compact growth of branches from the
very ground. Contrast this young tree
with the old Sequoia shown in the
next picture.

TREES AND SHRUBS 153

climate of England, but they find the winters of
the north-central and the northeastern United
States prohibitive.

A tree that has weathered successive ice ages
should not mind the winters of the present era,
even at the northern boundaries of the United
States, one might suppose. But such an infer-
ence misses the chief point of the Sequoia's
ancestral story. In fact, the giant trees are alive
to-day in something like their pristine form
because they migrated before the ice sheets and
finally found a place of refuge west of the Sierras
where they were sheltered from the northern
blasts and given protection by the tempered
breezes of the Pacific. As compared with the
other conifers — pines, spruces, hemlocks, cedars,
and the rest — the Sequoias are really tender
trees. They are hardy indeed in contrast with
their ancestors of still remoter geological times.
But they have never developed that extreme
hardiness that characterizes their modified and
stunted cousins.

Nevertheless it has been found possible to raise
the Sequoia gigantea as far north as central New
York. But the tree does not really thrive in
regions so inhospitable, and the redwood is even
more tender. In central and south-central
regions of the United States, however, the giant

154, LUTHER BURBANK

trees can be grown to better advantage, and here
they should find a place as ornamental trees that
has not hitherto been accorded them.

In the region of Washington, D. C, the
Sequoia has proved altogether hardy, and of
course it may be grown readily anywhere along
the Atlantic Coast south of this region. It is a
tree of extremely rapid growth, almost equaling
the eucalyptus. The redwood also is of such
rapid growth under cultivation that it soon over-
shadows most other trees. Indeed, it grows so
rapidly and requires so much room that it is
hardly adapted to use as an ornamental tree
except in very large grounds.

I have raised the giant Sequoia (it is known
technically as Sequoia gigantea) m the nursery
from seed, and the redwood (Sequoia semper-
virens) from cuttings as Well as from seed. The
cuttings do fairly well if started in the fall and
treated like cuttings of other conifers.

As to the matter of selection and development,
the redwood itself may probably be regarded as
a comparatively recent variation from the form
of the giant Sequoia. The ancestors of the red-
wood took up their location in the valleys nearer
the ocean and were modified until they are con-
sidered to rank as a distinct species. But the
similarity of the two forms is obvious, and the

TREES AND SHRUBS 155

two species stand in a class by themselves — obvi-
ously allied to other conifers in the form of leaf
and cone and manner of growth, yet so far out-
ranking all others as to be properly thought
of as representatives of a unique order of
vegetation.

Whether further modifications in the giant
trees could be wrought by hybridizing the two
forms or by selection among variant seedlings
is a question of interest.

Presumably, such modifications could be
brought about were there time for it. But in
dealing with a tree that is a mere child when it
has outlived half a dozen generations of men,
the plant developer feels himself in the presence
of forces that lie almost beyond his ken.

Moreover the attempt to deal experimentally
with the redwood is made difficult by the fact
that the tree seldom bears seed. Some of the
woodmen claim that it bears once in seven years,
but this is doubtless a mere guess, instigated
by the popular superstition connected with the
number seven. On one occasion, some thirty-
five years ago, I was informed that the red-
woods were loaded with seed, and went out with
some helpers and gathered a dozen grain sacks
or more of the cones, which could be obtained in
any desired quantity. On drying the cones I

156 LUTHER BURBANK

found that the seeds themselves made up half
the total weight.

There was a wide variation in the cones
themselves and in the seed from different trees.

The seed when dried kept its germinating
quality for seven or eight years. But only a very
small proportion of the seeds will germinate
under any circumstances, even when fresh. This
seems to be especially true of seeds collected
from the younger trees — a fact that accentuates
the already sufficient difficulties that confront
the plant developer who cares to undertake the
rather discouraging task of experimental breed-
ing with these antique giants.

Nevertheless, it should be recorded that a
certain amount of work has been done with the
redwood, particularly in the way of selecting
trees that bear weeping branches and other
unique characters. I have observed that seed-
lings usually show the characteristic drooping
branches of the parent form. Most of the seed-
lings show a rather wide range of variation of
foliage, particularly where seed from different
localities is sown. Some are much lighter in
color than others, and there are various interest-
ing characteristics that may be noted by a close
observer, leaving no doubt that there is sufficient
material for the purposes of the plant developer.

TREES AND SHRUBS 157

Doubtless anyone who has patience to under-
take the task will be able to produce various
types of redwoods that will reveal interesting
characteristics of the remote racial strains that
now are so blended in the existing representa-
tives of the family as to be scarcely observable.

It is not best to attempt to speak except in a
general way of the other members of the great
tribe of conifers, the merits of most of which, as
ornamental trees, are familiar to every garden
and landscape architect.

There are some scores of genera and some
hundreds of species of conifers, but the varieties
are too numerous and too intricately blended for
accurate computation.

No other single region has so many forms of
evergreens, and ones that show such wide range
of variation, as the Pacific Coast region. It has
been estimated that there are as many species of
conifers in California as in all the rest of the
world.

But the conifers of one kind and another grow
everywhere throughout the colder regions of the
Northern Hemisphere, some of them making
their way also to parts of the South.

Every one of them is an object lesson in the
possibility of plant variation; for as a class they
represent a modification of leaf form of the most

THE LARGEST TREE IN
THE WORLD

This giant Sequoia, growing in the
Mariposa Grove , in the Yosemite
National Park, is known as the
''Grizzly Giant/' It is 34 feet in
diameter and 225 feet high. It is
estimated to contain more than one
million feet of lumber. The first limb
is 100 feet from the ground, and six
feet in diameter. Doubtless the tree
originally had limbs all the way from
the groinid, but the lower ones have
died in the course of the ages that mark
the life of this extraordinary tree.

TREES AND SHRUBS 159

striking character to meet the exigencies of a
changing environment.

Time was, doubtless, when the ancestors of the
conifers had flat, spreading leaves like the leaves
of other forms of vegetation. But when the
climatic conditions changed, the pampering influ-
ences of warmth and moisture being supplanted
by the chill and drought that presaged the onset
of perpetual winter, a premium was put on the
conservation of plant energies. Whereas before
the elements favored the tree that could raise its
head highest and thrust out the most luxuriant
growth of spreading leaves to absorb the carbon
from the heavily laden atmosphere, the time now
came when the tree that had a smaller system of
branches to nourish and a less expansive leaf sys-
tem had better chance of maintaining existence.

So in the lapse of ages, the conditions becom-
ing more and more hard, the trees that varied in
the direction of smaller size and narrower leaves
had an ever-increasing advantage. These sur-
vived where their more rank-growing and luxu-
riant-leafed fellows perished.

Thus generation after generation natural se-
lection operated to modify the size of the trees
and to develop a race of trees with narrow leaves,
which ultimately were reduced to the form of
needles.

160 LUTHER BURBANK

Such leaves, offering the largest possible sur-
face in proportion to their bulk, could gain nour-
ishment from an impoverished atmosphere, and
at the same time would obstruct the rays of the
sun but little, so that the entire foliage of the tree
might secure a share of the all-essential light
which now, age on age, became less and less
bright as the earth may have changed the direc-
tion of its axis.

Of course there were other trees that did
not undergo this modification. But these were
forced either to make more rapid migrations to
the south or to give up the fight altogether and
to submit to extermination. The only evergreen
trees that were able to maintain existence in the
regions where the climate became exceedingly
cold were those that had developed the new type
of leaf form, and had learned to conserve their
energies to the last degree.

But of course the trees that took on this new
habit varied among themselves, and as they
spread to different regions such variations were
developed and fixed under the influence of dif-
ferent environments, until many tribes of needle-
leafed trees were developed so differently as to
constitute the races that the modern botanist
terms pine and spruce and cypress and juniper
and hemlock and yew and cedar, etc.

TREES AND SHRUBS 161

Representatives of all the chief genera of coni-
fers have a recognized place among ornamental
trees and are everywhere popular in cold
climates. The variations among the different
species are so obvious as to attract the attention
of the least observant. And the opportunity to
develop any fixed new form is correspondingly
good.

I have raised large numbers of conifers of
many species, and have experimented with them
in the way of selection, producing in some
eases varieties of considerable interest; for ex-
ample, several beautiful varieties of the various
Abies, including some very conspicuous forms
with weeping foliage; also some that grew
very compactly, being strikingly different in
appearance from the usual spruce with its long
branches.

Variations in the color of foliage have also
been given attention and have observed varia-
tions from bud sports in the wild specimens of
A. Douglasi and A. amabilis that were of inter-
est. In particular I have seen a single branch
in a wild species (a bud sport) that would droop
several feet below all the other branches. Such
a branch may generally be propagated by graft-
ing or from cuttings, and trees having this habit
may thus be developed. There are numerous

F — Bur. Vol. 8

YELLOW PINE

There are said to he more species of
conifers in California than in all the
rest of the world, and the very best
of these, from the standpoint of the
lumberman, is the yellow pine, here
shown. Note the absolutely straight
trunk, holding almost the same size
to a great height. Observe, also, that
this is a very large tree, although not,
of course, competing with the giant
Sequoias and the redwoods.

TREES AND SHRUBS 163

corresponding variations in cypress and other
conifers grown from the seed.

The Douglas spruce is a common California
form that is quite variable. This has excep-
tional interest, because it is a tree of very rapid
growth. In many cases where a tract of land
has been burned over or the trees have been cut
off, there will spring up what at first appears to
be a growth of oaks alone. But in fifteen or
twenty years the growth of Douglas spruce
will entirely overshadow the oaks, ultimately
destroying them altogether, and presenting yet
another illustration of the practical operation
of natural selection.

But there is a very great variation among the
individuals of the different species of conifers as
to rapidity of growth. So there is fine oppor-
tunity for the experimenter to select the more
rapid-growing trees, and thus to develop a race
of timber trees of very exceptional value.

The experiment is not difficult with the Doug-
las spruce (A. Douglasi) as it bears seed while
quite young, particularly when the trees stand
by themselves. The seed remains in the cones
for some time, to mature so that it may be col-
lected at any season of the year. The seeds ger-
minate readily, the seedlings may be easily trans-
planted, and in general this is one of the easiest

164 LUTHER BURBANK

conifers with which to work. The reasonable
hardiness of the tree and its adaptation to all
soils and climates are further merits that com-
mend it to the attention of the plant developer,
whether he have in mind a tree for ornament or
for reforestation.

The experimenter should know, however, that
the seed of the Abies, unlike that of the red-
wood and some other conifers, retain their vital-
ity for a short time onl3\ If attention is given
to the securing of fresh seed, the experiments
can scarcely fail to go forward successfully.

There are, of course, almost numberless other
species and varieties of conifers that hold out in-
viting opportunities for the plant developer. A
beginning may be made with almost any varieties
that chance to grow in your vicinity, and the
facility with which the different varieties may be
reproduced, together with the wide range of
variation, offer opportunity for selection and in-
sure interesting developments, provided you
have sufficient patience to wait for them.

Some Deciduous Favorites

But if there are no broad-leafed trees that
quite equal the hardest of the conifers in capac-
ity to withstand cold and to draw nourishment
from sandy or rocky soils under disheartening

TREES AND SHRUBS 165

conditions, there are a few tribes of deciduous
trees that make at least a commendable effort
to rivals them.

Notable among these is the birch. But the
beech, oak, maple, hickory, and walnut also have
representatives that are able to withstand the
winter in regions where the mercury freezes.

All of these have a certain importance as
ornamental trees, but in the main they are
valued rather for their timber, and we have dealt
with them when we spoke of forest trees.

There is a considerable company of trees of
less hardy character that nevertheless are resist-
ant enough to thrive in the streets, parks, and
gardens of our Northern States if given a cer-
tain amount of protection, even though some of
them could not make their way in the wilds
in competition with the hardy tribes just
mentioned.

These trees are less hardy than the others,
presumably because they migrated a little more
rapidly in the old days of changing climates and
kept far enough away from the ice sheet to be
able to retain something of their taste for tropi-
cal conditions. They not only retained the
broad leaf system, but some of them also re-
tained or developed the habit of bearing hand-
some flowers — a habit that would have served

THE JUDAS TREE OR
RED-BUD

This is a hardy tree of very wide dis-
tribution, the eastern species thriving
from New York to Florida. There
are three other species, one indigenous
to Europe, the second to Japan, and
the third growing along the Pacific
coast. Interesting breeding experi-
ments might be made by combining the
various species. The tree is peculiarly
attractive at the flowering time, early in
the spring, before the leaves appear.

TREES AND SHRUBS 167

small purpose for the conifers, since insects
could not thrive in cold regions where they re-
mained to battle with the elements.

Doubtless the most interesting of these trees
that escaped destruction by flight, and the one
that has maintained most fixedly the tra-
ditions of the Mesozoic era, is the tulip tree
(Liriodendron) .

This beautiful tree, with its unique broad
glossy leaves and handsome flowers is now the
lone representative of its genus. One species
alone survives as the remnant of a tribe that
flourished abundantly in the Mesozoic Age.
This species made its way to what is now the
southern part of the United States, and has
kept up its aristocratic traditions throughout
intervening ages of such vast extent that it
staggers the mind to attempt to grasp their
significance.

The thoughtful person cannot well escape a
feeling of awe as he stands in the presence of this
representative of a race that in the main was
gathered to its fathers at a time when the ances-
tors of man were perhaps still progressing on
all fours.

But, traditions aside, the tulip tree of to-day
is a thing of beauty, prized for itself, regardless
of its ancestry. It makes a fine tree for avenue.

168 LUTHER BURBANK

dooryard, or park, and it may be grown as far
north as New York and New England.

Being a monotypic tree, one would not expect
it to show very great variation. But no very
keen powers of observation are required to see
that the tulip trees are not identical, and doubt-
less their variation is enough to afford oppor-
tunities for interesting experiments, though
there is nothing on the earth at the ]3resent time
with which to combine them.

Exceptional interest should attach to a line of
experiment in which the plant developer is deal-
ing with racial traditions of such antiquity and
such fixity. Meantime, the fact that the tree has
a beautiful flower gives opportunity for a line of
experiment that is usually possible only among
herbs and bushes, inasmuch as most of our trees,
as the reader is well aware, are wind-fertilized,
and hence do not bear conspicuous blossoms.

There are several other trees, however, that
resemble the tulip tree in the matter of blossom
bearing, and that are not altogether unlike it
in general appearance, some of which have cor-
responding interest, , being representati-'^^s of
ancient forms, even if not quite rivaling the tulip
tree in the length of their unmodified pedigrees.

The catalpa and the magnolia may be named
as perhaps the chief representatives of these

TREES AND SHRUBS 169

flowering trees. Both of these are represented
by several species, and the representatives of each
are subject to considerable variation.

There are at least two distinct hybrid catalpas,
involving three species, and I have noted great
difference in the rapidity of growth of seedling
catalpas; also variation in color and abundance
of flowers, in length of seed pods, and in manner
of growth of the trees themselves, some being
much more upright than others, and I have ob-
served magnolia hybrids also, and have thought
it matter for surprise that there are not more of
them, for the trees are readily cross-fertilized.
Doubtless the fact that different species bloom
at different seasons largely accounts for the rela-
tive infrequency of natural crossing.

There is an opportunity to work with the
catalpa, and I could scarcely mention a plant that
seems to me to give better promise for experi-
ments in crossing and selection than the great
and varied family of magnolias.

If the seeds are planted while fresh, they
germinate readily. The seedlings are easily
raised — almost as easily as apples or pears.

Among the magnolia seedlings now growing
on my grounds, there are some that will grow
three or four feet the first season, while others
grow only as many inches. Some have a branch-

THE HYBRID ELM

In the background, the hyhrid elm
and the Chilean pine. At the left, the
selected strawberry plants that remain
after the bed has been thoroughly
thinned. In the middle ground, a row
of teosinte.

TREES AND SHRUBS 171

ing habit, and others form an upright growth.
The leaf varies in breadth and length and in
general appearance. Some are early bloomers
and some are late bloomers. There are different
shades of flowers. All in all, there is abundant
opportunity for interesting experiments in selec-
tive breeding.

Among other interesting deciduous trees, all
of which afford ready opportunity for experi-
mentation, are the acacia and its relative the
locust (the seeds of both of which may best be
made ready for germination by boiling), the
alders are quite variable and with which I have
made interesting experiments; the ash, which
affords excellent opportunities for hybridization,
and is especially promising for timber; and the
hawthorn, which has attractive flowers and fruit
that are subject to a wide range of variation, and
which has exceptional interest because of its not
very remote relationship with the great tribe of
trees that furnish our chief orchard fruits.

The names of the dogwood, the pepper tree,
strawberry tree, and numerous others might be
added, but regarding each of them substantial^
the same thing might be said. All offer excellent
opportunities for selective breeding; but few or
none of them have been extensively worked with
hitherto.

172 LUTHER BURBANK

The Finest of Ornamental Trees

There is one peerless tree, however, that I
must single out for a few added words of special
mention in concluding this brief summary of
some of the more notable among the ornamental
trees.

This is the elm, a tree that occupies a place
apart, having scarcely a rival when we consider
the ensemble of qualities that go to make up an
ideal ornamental and shade tree.

Whoever has visited an old New England
village, and has walked through the corridors of
elms or looked down the vista of streets arched
over by the interlocking branches of the rows of
trees on either side, will not be likely to challenge
the preeminence of this tree. Nothing could
more admirably meet the purposes of a shade and
avenue tree.

The English elm, which is a more compact
grower than the American species, has been
widely planted in California. But the American
elm thrives here also, although not native to the
coast, and it is much less subject to insect pests
than is the European species; also the Eng-
lish elm is stiff, and quite lacking in the grace-
ful lines that the American elms so naturally
assume.

TREES AND SHRUBS 173

There is a very wide range of variation among
American elms, notably in the size of the leaves,
and the openness or compactness of growth, and
in the weeping habit.

The variation is so great that it is never wise
to plant a row of seedling elms along a street or
roadside. It is much better in the interest of
uniformity to secure trees that have been grafted.

The slippery elm, which grows in the same
regions with the common American species, is a
tree of more compact growth, but on the whole
not to be compared with the other species. There
are natural hybrids, however, between the Amer-
ican elm and the slippery elm that exceed either
parent in size, and sometimes are of surpassing
beauty.

The largest tree that I have ever seen in New
England, and perhaps the largest elm that ever
grew, was one that grew in Lancaster, my boy-
hood home, and which I have every reason to
believe was a hybrid.

As I was born and brought up under the elm,
I have naturally an affection for them greater
perhaps than for any other tree. Branches were
once secured of the gigantic hybrid, while on a
visit to my old home, and brought to California
and grafted on roots of a seedling of the Ameri-
can elm on my home place at Santa Rosa.

174 LUTHER BURBANK

When this grafted tree was only fifteen years
old it was tM^o and a half feet in diameter. Its
hybrid character is obvious to all botanists who
have examined it and as the original giant Lan-
caster elm has since been destroyed by a passing
hurricane, I now have the only representative of
it still living.

I have not experimented further with the elm
in this direction; but the grafted tree that thus
reproduced the personality'^ of the giant elm in
the shadows of which I passed my boyhood — a
souvenir that links the home of my mature years
with the home of my ancestors — is a source of
perpetual pleasure.

PERSONAL AND HISTORICAL

Sketch of the Author by His Sister
Emma Burbank Beeson

THE town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, is
one of the most picturesque in all TsTew
England. Its unsurpassed scenery is of
the English type, a wealth of queenlj^ elms of
wondrous size and beauty gracing its highways
and meadows. The gently flowing Nashua
River; quiet, wood-encircled lakes; sparkling
springs of pure, sweet water; rich grassy inter-
vals and gracefully sloping hills — all lend a pecu-
liar charm to its rare beauty. The treasures of
mountain, field, and forest are there; the blue of
the fringed gentian, the sumac's fire, and the
thousand varied forest tints unite with the wild
flowers, berries, fruits, and nuts to make life
enjoyable. Although there may be something
of restraint in New England life, there can be
no monotony in a land of such charmingly diver-
sified scenery, and oft-changing seasons. Spring
with its promise-bursting seed and budding

175

176 LUTHER BURBANK

flower; summer with its fullness — blue sky and
green grass; autumn with the Indian summer's
myriad colored leaves, and harvest time; winter
with snowdrifts and merry sleigh bells, ice-clad
trees, and warm, cheery sociability — each season
has its own attractions.

Lancaster is rich, too, in historic lore: more
than two and one-half centuries have passed since
the town was settled by white men. Before Lex-
ington, Bunker Hill, or Philadelphia and the
Liberty Bell had been called into existence;
before there was any dream of the mighty possi-
bilities of this Western Continent, a tract of land
ten miles long and eight miles wide, in the valley
of the Nashua River, was purchased in the
year 1643 of the Indian chief, Sholan, sachem
of the Nashaways or Nashawogs, a tribe
whose wigwams were located near Wasliacum
Lake.

In the year 1653, there being nine families in
the settlement, the township was incorporated
under the name of Lancaster.

The soil and climate were not hospitable to
ignorance and indolence, and the great West of
to-day owes much of its prosperity to the high
ideals of these pioneers who laid a sure founda-
tion for future development ; and from Maine to
California there is scarcely a community but has

PERSONAL HISTORY 177

felt the impulse of the high ideals of the sober,
industrious New Englander.

Since the settlement of Lancaster our national
history has been the most inspiring and luminous
in all human experience, and this town has not
failed to furnish its full quota of names of those
who in peace and in war have stood high in the
annals of the commonwealth and the nation.*
This is also true in the world of science and of
letters, t Only a few of the great mass of man-
kind stand above the others and impress one with
the sense of their individuality. The same is true
of cities and towns, and when Athens, Edinburgh
or Concord is named, there is presented a dis-
tinct picture of life with a quality of its own, like
a face of Van Dyck, or statue of Phidias. The
town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, by general
consent has such an individuality. A typical
New England home in this beautiful town
was the Burbank homestead — the large, square
brick house standing well back from the street
beneath the swaying branches of a great elm tree.
It was a sort of rendezvous for ministers, lec-
turers, and teachers, and was charged with intel-
lectual activity. Into this home on the seventh

* History of i^ancaster, by Abijal P. Marvin, published by the
town in 1879.

t A Bibliography of Lancastriana, by Henry S. Nourse, pub-
lished in 1901, compiled for the Public Library.

178 LUTHER BURBANK

day of March, 1849, was born the thirteenth child
— Luther Burbank.

The year 1849 was, in New England, an
active, busy year, as gold had just been discov-
ered in California, creating such an excitement
as — with the single exception of that occasioned
by the memorable Boston Tea Party in 1774, and
the consequent events — probably had not been
equaled in American history. During this and
the two following years many were preparing to
cross the plains in quest of gold.

Such was the environment into which Luther
Burbank was born. His welcome Was perhaps
made more tender by the fact that the little
brother and sister who had just preceded him
had been early excused from the school of life
and called away from its stern discipline. When
this frail sensitive child entered the home, older
brothers and sisters, as well as parents, rejoiced
at his coming.

A quiet, serious child, my brother's most
noticeable trait was a love — almost a reverence
— for flowers. A blossom placed in the baby
hands would always stay falling tears. Flowers
were never destroyed by him, but if, perchance,
one fell to pieces, his efforts were always at-
tempts to reconstruct it. Flowers vv'ere his first
toys and, when he was old enough to toddle

PERSONAL HISTORY 179

about, became his pets. Especially dear to his
heart was a thornless cactus (Epiphyllum)
which he carried about in his arms, until in an
unhappy moment he stumbled and fell, break-
ing pot and plant. This was his first great
sorrow; although by care the plant was made to
flourish again. Trees and flowers were espe-
cially abundant near our home, and wandering
among them was a pastime he greatly enjoyed.
No child ever entered more fully into the heart
of nature. From my brother's writings I glean
the following reminiscences of his childhood;

"From a distinctly remembered incident I
must from the first have been of an investigat-
ing turn of mind. The first thing that was fixed
in memory happened in this way: my good
mother, conforming to one of the customs of
old New England days, had just finished pre-
paring a large quantity of 'fried cakes,' and had
placed the boiling fat upon the floor in the
rear of the stove. Apparently it was a great
mystery to me how the hot fat could change
the sticky, unpalatable dough into the brown,
crisp — and evidently to my infant fingers —
irresistible 'doughnuts.' So, when mother's back
was turned, I 'hitched' along, as children do be-
fore they learn to walk, personally to investigate
the subject, and removing the lid from the ket-

180 LUTHER BURBANK

tie thrust my fingers well down into the almost
boiling fat. Distinctly do I remember the pain
that followed, and also the sympathy of parents
and neighbors extended in this trouble.

"This incident is mentioned partly to show
that young investigators have their trials as well
as older ones, especially if they strike out along
new lines of thought or action for themselves.
I have had reason later in life to know this holds
true in all cases where original investigations,
along any line, are undertaken. The pioneer in
any new line of thought is usually first ridiculed
and frowned upon; then abused; later endured
and pitied; and often afterward accepted as an
oracle. This can be explained satisfactorily:
The partisan does not think deeply, but is
prompted almost wholly by prejudice, and is
always ready to rail at and ridicule any innova-
tion, whether good or bad. Intelligent men and
women suspend judgment until they can have
an opportunity to weigh evidence, and dispas-
sionately decide for themselves whether any
proposition advanced is true or false. Un-
reasoning ignorance may be a necessary check
upon us all; for envious, jealous, and ignorant
enemies are often our best friends in disguise.

"Every man and every woman must meet
some of them sooner or later in life, and each

PERSONAL HISTORY 181

personally learn the vital lesson that these
friends in disguise are the necessary tests of
character and purpose. Thus folly, stupidity,
ignorance, envy, and jealousy frequently are
made to work for special as well as the general
good.

"The next incident indelibly traced on the
rapidly moving but invisible film of the soul, as
the sum of individual environments is impressed
upon the great heredity spirit of the race, oc-
curred soon after — and this time, too, the trouble
was caused by an original investigator. My
nature-loving mother, while gathering the big,
scarlet, luscious, wild strawberries, growing
abundantly over the fields near our home, had
carefully placed me on a dry spot among the
late June grasses, when a mischievous tame
crow, belonging to one of our neighbors, swooped
down alongside and began pulling hard at my
unprotected toes ; the pain and fright were most
distressing as the crow industriously applied his
sharp beak to my tender toes, and by the most
earnest persuasion I could not induce him to re-
linquish his hold. By repeatedly perforating the
warm June atmosphere with shrieks, help came
and the black rascal was prevailed upon to quit."

Our home was about three miles north of Lan-
caster village, just off the main road to Harvard;

182 LUTHER BURBANK

father was an unusually prosperous farmer and
manufacturer. Besides his farming interests,
with a large family, he found it necessary to
engage in manufacturing. On the farm was an
extensive bank of splendid clay; and as pottery
then was in great demand he engaged in its
manufacture. This business was carried on for
several years; but later the mammoth manufac-
turing paper and textile plants were established
in the vicinity, which created so great a demand
for brick that he found it profitable to establish
a brickyard on the farm; and as it takes wood
to burn brick he began buying woodlands, of
which he acquired large holdings. His judg-
ment of the value of growing woodlands was
good, and he employed a large number of men
each summer to make and burn the brick, some
of whom were engaged during the winter in
chopping and hauling wood, and in hauling the
brick by teams to the railroad stations, or deliv-
ering them to the various towns and cities within
fifty miles of the farm. Luther, and a j^ounger
brother, Alfred, when quite young, perhaps only
six or eight years of age, used to drive the oxen
with loads of brick to Clinton, Lancaster village.
Harvard, Fitchburg, Groton, Leominster, Shir-
ley, Sterling, Acton, and other near-by towns.
The Lancaster Gingham Mills, the Washburn

PERSONAL HISTORY 183

and Moen Wire Works, the Crocker Burbank
Paper Mills, and many hundreds of other brick
buildings in Lancaster and the towns surround-
ing were furnished from this source. Father
also furnished much material from the farm and
woodlands for the powder and paper mills in the
neighboring towns; and for Luther it was a
great treat, when taking material to the carpet,
paper, cloth, and wire manufacturers, to see the
wonderful processes employed in transforming
the raw materials into such intricate forms of
utility and beauty.

Samuel Walton Burbank, our father, was a
man of sterling integrity, scholarly tastes,
strong convictions, and unusually good business
ability. He was very indulgent, and fond of his
children, and gave to each the best education
within his power. He was always sincere, and
much respected by his neighbors, and greatly en-
joyed his associations with them. He served in
important offices in the government of the town,
but generally preferred his home and business
relations to outside engagements.

Mother, whose maiden name was Olive Ross,
was an active and intelligent woman, looking
after her household duties with scrupulous care.
She seemed always to know where everything
wanted could be found, and, better still, she was

OLIVE ROSS BURBANK,

LUTHER BURBANK'S

MOTHER

This picture "was taken when she was
past ninety years of age. She lived to
the age of ninety -six years and six
months. The last twenty-five years of
her life were spent in the Burhanh
home at Santa Rosa. She was at all
times a source of inspiration and en-
couragement.

■'<f^E*^

/>

»•». V

PERSONAL HISTORY 185

usually able to find it. Being naturally expert
in reading human character, she was of great
assistance to father in his business, as he em-
ployed much help and dealt with men of all
classes and of various nationalities. Indeed, she
was truly a helpmate to her husband in all
respects. She was fond of flowers, and with
all her other numerous duties had the home sur-
rounded by them. After coming to California
she lived in Luther's home, active and interested
in all of his work until her death in December,
1909, at the age of nearly ninety-seven.

We first hear of the Burbanks at Lancaster,
Lancashire, England, from which place five
Burbank brothers emigrated to America. We
find by the customhouse records at Boston, Mas-
sachusetts, that Joseph Burbank came in the
ship Abigail from London in 1635, and that
John Burbank, from whom our family de-
scended, was made a voter at Rowley, Massa-
chusetts, in 1640.

Father's mother was Ruth Felch, originally
from Wales. Mother's family — ^the Rosses —
came from Scotland: "This was a great and
illustrious family in the time of Kings Robert
and Bruce. Among the ancient and noble
houses of Scotland none perhaps ever held
a higher place in the annals of the country

186 LUTHER BURBANK

than the Rosses of Ross-shire, descendants of
the ancient Earl of Ross. As early as the year
1000 A. D., the chiefs of Ross were powerful
nobles, equal to any in Europe, and at one time
their wealth and influence were only equaled by
those of the King of Scotland himself. In fact,
they were comiected with the royal family by
a number of marriages, as shown in the coat of
arms of the earls of Ross which were taken from
the shield of the King to show that they were
children of the royal house. Of the descendants
of the earls of Ross, the house of Balnagown, the
first laird was Hugh Ross of Rarichies, second
son of Hugh, fifth earl of Ross. From the
house of Balnagown sprang many noted
branches of the family, and in tracing the
descent of these branches almost every event of
importance in the history of Scotland is
touched upon. Rev. George Ross of Balblair,
Ross-shire, the emigrant, was the progenitor of
a line of illustrious men who have made as deep
impress upon the pages of American history as
his ancestors had done in Scotland. He de-
scended from the ancient earls of Ross in a
direct line through the houses of Balnagown,
Shandwick, Balmachy, and Balblair. Though
the great feudal power of the family had been
broken, great wealth still remained in the parent

PERSONAL HISTORY 187

house of Shandwick and Balnagown. Col.
George Ross, one of the signers of the Declara-
tion of Independence, was of this family. The
descent from Malcolm (1165-1214), first earl of
Ross, is traced through the earls of Ross, to the
family in America."*

The name of mother's mother was Burpee, a
family of French descent. Thus it will be seen
that our ancestry, like that of most people in
America, is made up from many nationalities.

The Burbanks were generally farmers, paper
manufacturers, railroad men, teachers, and
clergymen; while on the Ross side the ancestry
were more often merchants, mechanics, and horti-
culturists. Few families of New England have
more reason to be proud of a prestige so well
and universally sustained as the Burbanks; few
families have been so eminently represented in
the learned professions, in civil enactments, in
military stations, and in all public reforms.

Professor Levi Sumner Burbank, a cousin,
who Hved with us part of the time, was a per-
sonal friend and associate of Louis Agassiz, and
in rambles with him Luther's love of nature was
greatly increased, as he knew the names of the
rocks, flowers, and trees. This cousin was at one
time principal of the Lancaster Academy, and

* Clan Ross in America, 1914.

188 LUTHER BURBANK

was one of the first members of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.
He wrote a number of books on scientific sub-
jects, one of which was entitled "The Eozoonal
Limestones of Eastern Massachusetts." He
frequently took long trips with Agassiz to
places of scientific interest; west to the copper
mines of Michigan, where Agassiz had invest-
ments; south to the Mammoth Cave, and to
other points of interest to naturalists. He was
also at one time Curator of Geology of the Bos-
ton Society of Natural History, and had a large
and well-selected geological collection. In this
way Luther came to know much of Agassiz and
his work.

Our Lancaster home was not far from that of
Ralph Waldo Emerson at Concord. The family
were all greatly interested in the characters of
Lincoln, Emerson, Webster, Sumner, Agassiz,
Thoreau, Channing, the Beechers, the Fowlers,
the Fields, and the Alcotts, with several of
whom father was personally acquainted.

We were brought up under the strict New
England regime, though our parents were ex-
ceedingly reasonable and indulgent. They did
not think it well for children to roam the fields
and woods on Sunday; yet, because of Luther's
love for the birds, flowers, and trees, often

PERSONAL HISTORY 189

allowed him to go out on Sunday afternoons and
roam in the fields among the trees, birds, brooks,
and flowers. The memory of these rambles is
yet recalled by him with much satisfaction.

On our farm were extensive peat meadows, on
which several acres of cranberries were growing.
It was of great interest to Luther to see the men
rake off the cranberries by the bushel with cran-
berry rakes, instead of picking them by hand as
other berries are gathered. When he was twelve
to fourteen years of age it was thought best to
flood the meadows to increase their productive-
ness. A large trout stream ran through the
meadow and Luther conceived the idea of dam-
ming it, ostensibly to increase the crop of cran-
berries, but chiefly for the purpose of providing
a fine place for skating — an amusement of which
he was very fond. Much hard work was done
by him through the October and November days
in building the dam which later flooded not only
father's cranberry meadows, but a great number
of acres adjoining. One of the happiest days
of his life was that on which he first saw this
great sheet of water where none had been before.
Flashboards had been prepared to raise the
water at the dam as desired, and during the
winter when the snow fell, covering the ice, it
was only necessary to add a board to raise the

190 LUTHER BURBANK

water above the snow to make the whole surface
a glassy sheet agam, upon which scores of young
people had great sport with sleds and skates.

During the long winters father, with Luther
and Alfred, often visited the woodlands where
the men were employed in chopping and pre-
paring the wood for burning the brick during
the following summer. During the summers
Luther used to help in the brickyard (generally
against his will) in turning numerous, long rows
of brick on edge to dry, but whenever oppor-
tunity was afforded, he engaged in building
windmills, water wheels and steam engines, mak-
ing statuary, pottery, etc., carrying on a variety
of chemical and other experiments that were of
more interest to him than turning brick on edge
— a very arduous task when well done, and one
that always resulted in sore hands and aching
back and legs.

A great source of delight to him were the ex-
cursions into the woods in summer time among
the waving boughs of maple, walnut, chestnut,
birch, beech, aspen, oak, and pine. These wood
roads wound through great gardens of moun-
tain laurel with glistening leaves and magnificent
crimson, pink, and white blossoms; near by was
Cumbery Pond, with its waters well stocked
with fish; the old "Slate Quarry"; the "Cinna-

PERSONAL HISTORY 191

mon Roses"; the great "cold spring"; and a
hundred places of interest and pleasure to our
childhood. Nor were the woods less attractive
in autumn, with their gorgeous tints, rustling
fallen leaves, among which we found the nuts of
the beech, butternut, hazel, hickory, and chest-
nut. A ride on the great rude wood sleds in
winter among the ice-clad or snow-laden trees
was no less delightful.

Chemistry and mechanics were of great inter-
est to Luther. First the attic, containing the
little wooden cradle, painted blue, in which so
many tired little ones had been hushed to sweet
slumber, the old spinning wheel, and ancient and
dilapidated furniture allured him. Later ex-
periments were begun in the backyard with an
old tea kettle, and the neighborhood was aroused
by an untiring steam whistle. These experi-
ments continued until he had perfected a mini-
ature steam engine, which he afterward sold to
be used in propelling a small pleasure boat.

An extreme shyness, the result of a delicate
physique and undue sensitiveness, often caused
Luther to be misunderstood and to shrink from
notice, bearing undeserved reproaches in silence.
When one of the many visitors at our home
looked at him across the table he would often
slip off his chair and run out of doors, not relish-

192 LUTHER BURBANK

ing too critical observation. Even before he
could count, if he saw more places set at the
dinner table than he could ascribe to the mem-
bers of the family, he would quietly say to
mother: "I don't want any dinner to-day."

Habits of observation and classification re-
sulting in the power to individualize were early
developed. Luther knew more than anyone
else about the apples in the orchard, the nuts in
the woods, and the wild berries on the hillside and
in the meadow grasses. He made friends of
birds, insects, and animals, and rocks, trees, and
clouds did not escape his notice. An artist and
poet in heart, no doubt even at an early age
dreams were cherished of a great life work,
dreams which a natural timidity caused him to
liide within his own consciousness.

Each winter brought many noted lecturers to
the forum in Lancaster. An especially deep
and lasting impression was made upon Luther's
life by a series of lectures delivered there by
Professor Gunning, on astronomj^ phj'^sical
geography, geology, mineralogy, palaeontology,
and other kindred subjects, not supposed to be
especially interesting to a child.

Luther's first experience in school life was in
a little red schoolhouse, located about one-half
mile from our home. On his first day the super-

PERSONAL HISTORY 193

intendents, or "committee men," as they were
called, visited oiir district, which was Number
Three, nicknamed "Gotham." The next district
adjoining Number Three on the north bore the
euphonious name of "Skunk's Misery." The
other districts had similar distinctive names, such
as "Ponakin," "Babel," "Deer's Horn," "The
Neck," and others which cannot now be recalled.
On that first day at school the rest of the pupils
seemed to have no trouble in reading off
promptly, but it was a terrible ordeal to Luther,
and when his turn came he boohooed, and was
excused. During the first winter, David, one of
our older brothers, generally took him on a hand
sled to school, after mother had tied a warm,
woolen tippet about his neck and placed some
thick, red and white woolen mittens upon his
hands. After the first day at school, most of his
troubles were over, though the big boys some-
times used to "yaff" at him.

In this school sister Jane, brother Herbert,
and cousins Myra and Calvin, were at times his
teachers. The course of study was the usual one
followed by the schools at that time. His
opinion, as now expressed, is that he began the
study of arithmetic, grammar, and algebra
altogether too earl}^ in life, as most children are
required to do to-day; although they are now

C3 — Bur. Vol. 8

194 LUTHER BURBANK

prepared to approach the subjects by successive
steps more natural and reasonable. These
studies were never a pleasure to him until he was
much older; but geography, word analysis, and
later geometry, pencil and crayon drawing, and
the languages were an unceasing delight.

At the Lancaster Academy, a high-grade
preparatory school, there were usually about
seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five
pupils, local, and from all over New England
and many Western and Southern States. Here,
as at the district school, Luther was a favorite
with teachers and schoolmates. As was the cus-
tom on Friday afternoons, the students were re-
quired to declaim, but owing to nervous timidity
he could not by any possibility do himself jus-
tice in this trying ordeal. And not until recent
years has he been able, with any degree of com-
posure, to address an audience. In order to
avoid these Friday afternoon ordeals, though
standing unusually high in all other studies, he
remained at home on the day for his turn in this
exercise, notwithstanding the fact that it caused
him no little regret to do so. The principal,
though severe in government, was kindly, and
after a time granted him the privilege of writing
a composition each week instead of declaiming
once a fortnight.

PERSONAL HISTORY 195

From that time on he enjoyed academic life
most intensely. Free-hand drawing was very
easy for him, and even after leaving school and
while at work in the city of Worcester at wood-
working and pattern making, he took lessons in
drawing once a week from the well-known artist,
Professor George E. Gladwyn, so long con-
nected with the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, who had a large class in drawing and
designing.

Father, observing that all Luther's leisure
moments, before leaving the academy, were em-
ployed in building water wheels, steam whistles,
steam engines, or something of the sort, con-
cluded that he ought to be a mechanic. An
uncle, Luther Ross, was superintendent of the
woodworking department of the great Ames
Manufacturing Company, whidi had plants at
.Worcester, Groton, and Chicopee Falls, Massa-
chusetts. A place was secured for Luther in the
factory at Worcester, where he was at first em-
ployed in turning the plowrounds, for wliich he
received the munificent sum of fifty cents a day.
Board was also fifty cents per day, and, as Sun-
day came once a week, he found himself fifty
cents in arrears at the close of each week.
Although he enjoyed the work, the compensa-
tion was insufiicient, so his uncle granted him

196 LUTHER BURBANK

the privilege of working by the piece instead of
by the day, and by special activity under this
arrangement he could make two or three times
as much as formerly.

After gaining some experience in this work
he contrived an improvement in the power turn-
ing lathe that enabled him to earn from ten to
sixteen dollars a day. With this good fortune,
he was greatly elated and gave himself to the
work with increased industry; but the clouds of
dust that came from oak lumber began to im-
pair his health, and it was thought best that he
should leave the shop for a time. Later return-
ing to the Ames Works, he was again employed
at pattern making and wood turning for a short
time.

All this time his love for nature and out-of-
door life had not lessened. Letters written to
friends at home while employed by the manu-
facturing company at Worcester were full of
references to long walks, the beauty of sky,
trees and flowers, the song of birds, and the pip-
ing of the frogs. His fondness for studying
human nature dates back to these days at
Worcester, for in one of his letters at that
time he wrote: "I take great pleasure in
studjdng the hundreds of new faces which I
meet each dav."

PERSONAL HISTORY 197

When Luther was twenty years of age, he de-
cided that the physician's profession would be
the most congenial as a life work, and so he
began the study of medicine; the value of the
knowledge thus gained in practical hygiene and
physiology as applied to plant life can hardly be
estimated; but father's death, occurring at this
time, the purpose was abandoned, and the family
moved to Groton — now Ayer, Massachusetts,
where we lived two years. It seems that nothing
was to turn Luther from his great life work;
and having purchased seventeen acres in the
village of Lunenburg for raising seeds and
market garden products, he began definite ex-
periments with plants, in which field he saw
great possibilities.

It was here that the now world-famed Bur-
bank potato was produced and numerous experi-
ments inaugurated for the improvement of plant
life which have been continued uninterruptedly
until the present time. After spending three
years in this work he moved to Santa Rosa, Cali-
fornia, where he has resided since October 1st,
1875.

Although the time intervening between the
date of his decision to come to California and
the time for starting was short, not being more
than sixty days, yet during that period he sold

198 LUTHER BURBANK

all his personal property; and the accounts of
the business transacted had been so accurately
kept that the total amount of these sales was
found to be within a few cents of the amount of
his annual appraisement. The same regard for
system and accuracy in all the details of busi-
ness which have ever characterized his methods
were here shown. Meantime, besides settling up
these matters, he had sent to different parts of
California for copies of various newspapers, pur-
chased and read several books on California, and
interviewed several parties who had visited the
State ; and from this information he decided that
northern California was probably the most suit-
able to his purpose for the production of im-
proved forms in plant life.

Two older brothers were then living in Toma-
les, California — George, who came in 1854, and
David in 1859. Having learned before coming
to the State that the climate of Tomales, being
close to the ocean, was too harsh for his experi-
ments, after some hesitation between San Jose
and Santa Rosa, he decided to locate in Santa
Rosa. Sometimes he has thought that the work
might have been slightly more advanced if he had
settled in the larger town of San Jose, in the
midst of the world's greatest fruit-producing
section, but, on the whole, he has been satisfied

PERSONAL HISTORY 199

with the choice that was made before leaving
New England.

After preparing to go to California, and just
before he left Massachusetts, the "Ralston Fail-
ure" occurred, which all old Californians too
well remember. Friends advised him to change
his mind on account of the reports of the greatly
depressed conditions California was then ex-
periencing, but having sold his property and
made all arrangements for the change he was
not to be deterred, and started overland in
September.

The trip to California was made alone, with
the money mostly obtained by the sale of the
Burbank potato, which had been produced
before and had been sold for one hundred and
fifty dollars to J. J. H. Gregory, a prominent
seedsman of Marblehead, Massachusetts.

On arrival in California, Luther had little
with him, except some clothing, books, and gar-
den seeds, and ten Burbank potatoes which Mr.
Gregory had allowed him to take in order to get
a start.

Santa Rosa was then a little village without
a sidewalk; surrounded by wheat fields; no
orchards, no vineyards, but few ornamental trees
and very little employment for anyone except
that of driving great teams of oxen or mules, in

200 LUTHER BURBANK

plowing" with gang plows in the winter, or
working with threshing crews in the summer.
Luther's physical strength was not sufficient to
take either of these positions. With little avail-
able means, in a strange land, far from home
and friends, he met with hardships from which
his sensitive nature recoiled, and which would
have turned a less determined soul from its pur-
pose. Letters written at this time to mother and
sister in the old New England home contain
no details of these hardships but are overflowing
with enthusiastic descriptions of the beautiful
scenery, flowers, trees, and birds, of the pure air
and blue sky of the new land.

Seeking work, he let no opportunity pass by,
often accepting that which was far beyond his
strength; and doing all sorts of odd jobs. Once
hearing that help was wanted on a building then
in construction, he applied and was promised
work if he would furnish his own shingling
hatchet. He spent his little remaining money
for one and reported for work the next morning
only to meet with another disappointment, as the
job had been given to another. Then he went
'to Petaluma where he worked through the winter
and spring of 1876 in the nursery of W. H. Pep-
per, which was established in 1852, one of the
first in California. Here, occupying a room over

PERSONAL HISTORY 201

the steaming hothouse at night, and exposed to
the damp soil and chmate by day, his strength
gave way, and he returned to Santa Rosa only to
be laid low by fever. But for the kindly minis-
trations of a good neighbor his work might here
have ended. A good woman, seeing his need,
furnished him fresh milk from her family cow,
and, without hope of reward, saved Luther Bur-
bank, not alone to family and friends, but to the
world.

A small piece of land was now rented and
while working at carpentry during the day,
he devoted the long summer evenings to
preparations for starting a small nursery of
his own.

With the nursery, the Burbank potato was
advertised in-a small way for seed. This helped
out a little; he was also employed as collector of
native California tree seeds for several American
and European seed firms, and in this way became
acquainted with most of the plants and trees that
grow in this part of the State, the locality where
they grow, the time of blooming, the time of
ripening the seed and other particulars that have
since been of considerable importance to him in
his work.

No path had been blazed for his footsteps, for
his work has no precedent, but as Copernicus

LUTHER BURBANK'S
BIRTHPLACE

This is the old Burhank homestead
at Lancaster, Massachusetts. The walls
were of homemade bricks sixteen inches
in thickness. It was overshadowed
with great weeping elms, and was a
busy place and a peaceful, happy one
for us children.

PERSONAL HISTOKY 203

studied the movement of the stars through the
apertures in the roof of an old barn back of the
dilapidated house in which he lived, so Luther
Burbank, while employed in the most common-
place tasks, was laying the foundation for future
achievements.

In the summer of 1877, to his great joy,
mother and sister (the writer) came to California
to join him.

By the old sales books it is shown that the first
year's sales in the nursery business amounted to
fifteen dollars and twenty cents; the next year
it was eighty- four dollars ; the third year to about
three hundred and fifty dollars ; and at the end of
ten years the quality of the trees and the reli-
ability of the Burbank "Santa Rosa Nursery"
became so widely known that he was selling over
sixteen thousand dollars' worth of trees and
plants per year.

After some years of this prosperity, he con-
cluded that it would be safe to embark on the life
work which he had laid out. Therefore the nurs-
ery business was sold in the fall of 1888 that
he might devote himself exclusively to the pro-
duction of new varieties of fruits, trees, and
flowers.

Nothing but the most intense love for and
a knowledge of the importance of this work

204 LUTHER BURBANK

could have induced him to have taken it up
as a life work at this time when he was abso-
lutely free to travel, see the world and enjoy
himself.

Previous to this time, the Gold Ridge farm
near Sebastopol had been purchased, from which
the nursery stock was now removed and the
ground covered by plants for experimental pur-
poses. Many of these plants had already been
experimented upon by him in definite lines for
years. The work was amplified and extended, as
time and space was now afforded, and plants
from all parts of the world secured for still
further development. Through many hundred
faithful foreign collectors he had often obtained
some wild plant whose economic possibilities had
never been apprehended, and which might, per-
haps, have remained unknown for ages. These
plants, when brought under culture and careful
observation, especially for promising variations,
and by combinations with other wild or cultivated
plants from other countries, have produced new
plants possessing qualities both of enormous
economic and scientific value, opening new fields
for still further development in various useful
directions. Often a certain experiment had been
carried on to a point where it needed some quality
more than any plant under cultivation had the

PERSONAL HISTORY 205

power to add, but by judicious combination of
some new, wild, related species, followed by selec-
tion, a most valuable acquisition has been pro-
duced. Curiously enough, a new Asclepiad,
Solanum, Ampelidee, Papaver, Prunus, Ribes,
Rubus, or whatever was most needed, almost
always came from some thoughtful, generous,
unkno^vn collector, in some out-of-the-way part
of the world, whose name had never been known
to him before, but who, apparently possessed of
a subtle intuition, sent seeds of just the plant
desired at the right moment. This has so often
occurred that to him it is now a matter of expec-
tation; he also has in several countries, which
have not been thoroughly botanized, regular col-
lectors; among the most active of whom was his
highly esteemed collector in Chile, Senor Jose
D. Husbands (now deceased), who has sent over
six thousand five hundred new species for trial
from the southern half of South America. For
Luther Burbank he has scaled forbidden moun-
tain peaks, waded rivers, visited islands, traveled
through arid deserts, among rock piles and amid
dangers from the native Indians who had never
been subdued by the powder and balls of
any people, but who have of late succumbed to a
more insidious enemy — European and Ameri-
can whiskey. Later teachers, travelers, mis-

206 LUTHER BURBANK

sionaries and even wild native North and
South American Indians have been of great
service.

On coming to California, my brother was sur-
prised to observe the great number of varieties
of fruits that could be raised -with such ease when
compared with raising them under eastern con-
ditions; also with the fact that the varieties
grown here were nearly all of eastern and
foreign origin, few, if any, new varieties having
been produced specially adapted to the new con-
ditions. It seemed desirable that new varieties
should be produced for these new conditions, and
having done some work in that line before com-
ing to California, he was prepared to take hold
of it with a reasonable amount of confidence as
to the outcome.

The fruits then existing seemed to him in
various ways to be lacking in many important
particulars, and this is true even to-daj'', although
partially modified. For instance, some trees
would bear large crops one year or, perhaps, two
years in succession; then, from some cause — late
spring frosts, heavy winds, too much rain at the
time of blooming, or other more or less evident
causes — the crop would be destroyed, thus
making fruit raising, even here, somewhat of a
"hit-or-miss" proposition.

PERSONAL HISTORY 207

One of the first things to attract his notice in
the woods and along the creeks was one of our
native lilies, Lilium pardalinum, commonly
called the leopard lily. This flower is quite vari-
able in a wild state, and this induced him to take
up some of its best forms for study and cultiva-
tion in his own grounds.

At first, berries and lilies took much of his
attention, and the experiments then made with
these plants were the most extensive that had
ever been made. At the same time he was grow-
ing apples, peaches, pears, plums, quinces, and
numerous other fruits from selected seed by the
hundred thousand each year, reserving only those
that were most promising, which were grafted
onto older fruit trees ; by this means earlier fruit-
ing resulted, thus making possible the testing of
a vast number of varieties ^vithin the brief period
of from two to four years. If anyone should
think this a simple and inexpensive work, a little
personal experience would disabuse one's mind
of the idea, for it is all outgo, absolutely no in-
come— millions of trees raised, just a few saved,
none sold — none of them salable — and thus
all but a few were consumed in enormous
bonfires.

After about ten years of this work, it became
plain to him that it must soon become imperative

208 LUTHER BURBANK

either to cease the work, or reengage in the
nursery business in order to obtain means to carry
on the experiments ; but the work had increased so
greatly that if another nursery should have been
started the experimental work would necessarily
have been neglected. These perplexing condi-
tions went on for some years. At last both his
home i^lace and the experiment grounds at Gold
Ridge were involved, and he had about decided
that it was best to curtail or perhaps entirely
abandon the experiments, at that time far more
promising than ever before. The circumstances
were well known to many parties — in fact, to the
horticultural world generally. Numerous friends
thought he should apply to some university, to
the United States Government, or to the State
of California for assistance, but he was un^nlling
to accept any of these suggestions. Finally, his
ever faithful friend and adviser, Judge Samuel
F. Lieb of San Jose, California, could endure the
situation no longer, and with Judge W. W.
Morrow of San Rafael, California, and Presi-
dent David Starr Jordan of Stanford Univer-
sity, all valued friends, everj'w^here honored and
revered as leaders in their respective professions,
and other esteemed friends at Washington, D.
C, without his knowledge, had made arrange-
ments by which a grant or subvention should be

PERSONAL HISTORY 209

made by the Carnegie Institution at Washington
for the continuance of the work. The terms
involved in the first proposition did not meet
with his approval, as it would have seriously and
unnecessarily cramped the work. The next year
(1904) a new proposition was made by the
Carnegie Institution which gave him freedom,
except that semiannual statements be made
($10,000 annually as long as agreeable to both
parties) ; with serious misgivings he accepted
the trust, and for five years worked under this
arrangement. It being a difiicult proposition to
properly gi-aft a branch of the young Carnegie
Institution onto an established institution of
more than thirty years' existence the expenses
necessary to renew and extend the work and
make arrangements for the preservation of the
scientific data were large. And from the first he
found it necessary each year to use an average of
nine to twelve hundred dollars per annum more
than the amount set aside for this purpose, the
amount of labor and money expenditures re-
quired in producing these new creations being
something astounding to anyone when first
acquainted with the facts. The additional funds
for continuing these experiments were obtained
from the occasional sale of novelties, as before.
At the end of five years this arrangement could

210 LUTHER BURBANK

no longer be endured and was dissolved, greatly
to his satisfaction, leaving him again absolutely-
free from the long, weary, daily stenographic
dictations which had been imposed during these
five years.

Visitors were welcomed until he found it im-
possible to carry on the work and meet personally
the rapidly increasing number, many of whom
had journeyed thousands of miles to confer with
him and to learn of his methods. Among these
were men and women prominent in literature,
art, education, science, finance, those connected
with the governments of most foreign lands, and
many whose names are familiar in song and
story. Much of his inspiration has come from
association with these choice spirits.

During the last ten years, however, he has been
able to see but few of those desiring an interview.
Words cannot express his sorrow that such
should be the case, but it has been found neces-
sary; otherwise the valuable w^ork would lapse
into utter ruin. Invitations to write and to lec-
ture in this and other lands have necessarily been
declined by him.

The success which attended these investiga-
tions in plant life has, in my brother's opinion,
resulted from a life resolve made when he was
eighteen years of age, that the search for truth

PERSONAL HISTORY 211

was the one supreme ideal for man, regardless
of dictum or creed of any sort, and through life
he has found no reason to change the attitude
then taken.

He believes that one's own life is the only true
life to live; and that we should always remember
that our brothers and sisters who are traveling
the same road have the same rights and should
have all the privileges we demand for ourselves;
and that these privileges should be extended to
our traveling companions in scales, furs, and
feathers.

Although the name of Luther Burbank is
familiar throughout the whole civilized world,
and even where civilization is but partial, yet
very few know how simple is his home life, or
how strenuous is his work.

The little vine-covered cottage in a corner of
the experiment grounds at Santa Rosa was his
home for many years. Years of thought, plan-
ning, working and waiting, with insufficient
laboratory and office room, with no trained
assistants, he was thus compelled personally
to keep his own accurate scientific records,
his only financial resource was the occa-
sional sale of novelties, the real cost of which
was little understood. He listened quietly,
patiently, and reverently to nature's lessons, and

THE OLD HOMESTEAD AS IT
NOW APPEARS

The vines have almost taken pos-
session of the place.

PERSONAL HISTORY 213

day by day his experiments were leading
onward toward new plant creations which
should beautify the earth and furnish food
for the rapidly increasing population of the
globe.

The cottage is now utilized for office purposes,
for in the summer of 1906 the comfortable,
spacious home which he now occupies was built,
across the street and overlooking the home
experiment grounds. Here, although the spirit
of work pervades the atmosphere, the feeling of
good cheer, peace, and tranquillity that ever
accompanies the service that uplifts humanity,
is very pronounced.

In person my brother is slight, almost frail,
yet possessed of remarkable vitality and power
of endurance. A face refined and spiritualized
by the fires of enthusiasm and of suffering; the
high, broad brow, and the soft brown hair now
silvered, are in perfect accord with intense blue
eyes that are keen to read to the very soul of
things, yet lighten at every token of friendship
and of honest appreciation of his work, or
twinkle with shy humor. With its old-time sim-
plicity his charm of manner lingers with one like
the fragrance of flowers. Tender in his nature
and overflowing with kindliness, he is strong in
his principles and convictions and frankly un-

214 LUTHER BURBANK

reserved, revered by associates, respected by
employees, he is loved by those who know him
best. Possessed of a strong individuality and
intensity of feeling combined with extreme
sensitiveness, he is compelled to carefully pro-
tect his vitality that he may devote all his
strength to his chosen work.

A seeker after truth alone, he subscribes to no
creed, belongs to no cult or sect, and refuses to
wear badge or title, for only life sets the true seal
to character. Unfettered by prejudice, always
guarding against self-deception, laying aside
theory, dogma, bias, he believes in himself and
the sacredness of his mission.

A stroll among his growing plants, a day on
the seashore or by some trickling mountain
stream, are his chosen recreations, for his is a soul
that feels the joy of the meadow, the laughter
of the brook and sees unknown beauty in the
most familiar objects.

He is intensely fond of music, but, as he is
compelled to conserve his strength, seldom
attends evening entertainments, and so insistent
are the demands of his work that his vacations
are few.

He is a rare conversationalist, using language
clear and vivid, and ever since the time when his
teacher granted him the privilege of writing an

PERSONAL HISTORY 215

essay instead of declaiming for the Fridaj^ after-
noon exercises at Lancaster Academy, writing
has been a pleasure to him.

His catalogues, entitled "New Creations in
Plant Life," which were published in 1893 and
in succeeding years, are uSed as textbooks by
many schools and colleges, and for reference by
horticultural societies and experiment stations
in this and other countries.

In 1907 the little book, "The Training of the
Human Plant," was published and has found a
very generous response from the public; it has
been translated into several languages, put in
form for the blind, and has become a textbook
for the education of the young in thousands of
schools and homes. His love for children makes
it especially appropriate that his first printed
volume be dedicated to the millions of school
children under all skies, and that it be a plea for
their better development. Especially appropri-
ate, also, is the making of his birthday, March
7th, a legal holiday bj?- the State of California,
to be observed by the planting of trees and
flowers.

In his marvelous conquest of plant life there
has been no display and no magic, no elaborate
appliances for research; only intuition, industry,
skill, and patience; hands, eyes, and brain have

216 LUTHER BURBANK

been the instruments used in the interpretation
and guidance of the laws of nature. A brief
glance at what has been accomplished has been
given, but, with the knowledge and skill attained,
still greater work is now being done by him.
Unswerved from his ideals by any hope of
pecuniary reward, it can be truly said of Luther
Burbank : the man is greater than his work.

THE STORY OF LUTHER
BURBANK

Autobiography

IN examining a new and unexplored country,
it is better to first take a broad, comprehen-
sive, general view of the landscape before
going into detail. Having secured our bearings
of the new territory, we are then equipped for a
more minute study of the nearer landscape.

We are now discovering how mobile all life,
both static and dynamic, is under the deft might
of mind. Each atom lives; there is no gulf
between the quick and the dead and the elements
of the human brain are found alike in the pebbles
under foot and the blazing suns of space. All
are alike subject to the universal attractions and
repulsions of nature. True science and pure
religion are branches from the same root; both
are conscious and unconscious efforts of the
human ego to adapt itself to the conditions of
life. The foliage may well represent our daily
life. The flowers of idealism lend a halo of

217

218 LUTHER BURBANK

beauty, fragrance, joy, love, and hope to life.
The fruits formed through the more deliberate
steps of science are also fundamental. The foli-
age is often injured by the mildew of insincerity
and the caterpillars of avarice. The flowers, also,
are all too often blasted and destroyed by the
same means* and the fruit by worms at the core,
v/hich some of the useful but unwelcome facts of
science bring to light.

The mind of man has sounded no limits to
time or space. We are learning that all the
varied forms and conditions which we know are
intimately connected and interdependent upon
the past conditions which have shaped their
course and structure. The varying influences
which have surrounded plants, animals, worlds
or atoms have molded their varied characters and
tendencies into their present make-up. This we
may call heredity or stored enviromnent. The
more permanent aggregations with which we are
familiar, like rocks, metals, air, water, and hun-
dreds of others, seem generally very uniform
and fixed in character ; while, if these are assimi-
lated and chemically combined into the forms of
animals or trees, they are able to vary in aspect,
in habit and character in order to adapt them
selves to the varying conditions of Hfe. If not

* Or the fungus of pride at the surface.

NEW ENGLAND 219

more pliable and alive than rocks and metals,
they could not exist. Even the appearance and
qualities of most chemical combinations which
seem arbitrarily and permanently fixed, when
combined and placed under certain new environ-
ments, may develop unsuspected characters and
tendencies. Everybody knows that the charac-
ters of iron are more fixed than those of plants
and animals. The characters and habits of iron,
lime, soda, and hundreds of other chemical sub-
stances and compounds can be fully depended
upon; they will act according to their inlierent
qualities. But these same chemical substances
from which animals and plants are formed are so
numerous and in such diverse combinations that
their behavior is vastly more complicated and
uncertain. The structures which we call plants
and animals make use of the chemical forces of
nearly every substance so far discovered in the
universe.

Nature goes on giving birth to new nations,
new peoples, which live their lives and disappear,
to be replaced by others and others which follow,
as far as we know, forever, or as long as this
planet retains the conditions necessary to human
and national life.

A good heredity from a clean upright ancestry
is more to be desired than all the titles, honors

220 LUTHER BURBANK

and wealth that earth can ever bestow. Cheer-
fulness, good health, thrift, and ability to concen-
trate and persist is a precious heritage. Millions
of "half men" are ushered into life, who are in
themselves wholly incapable of self-respect, self-
control, and self-determination, and only by some
unusual drug or other stimulant can they be
brought up to "concert pitch," so to speak, for
a brief space; in other words, up to the normal
average condition of ability to become self-sup-
porting through life without infringing on the
normal rights of others, or to enjoy the ordinary
pursuits of life wuth relish and appreciation. The
man or woman who is endowed with a normal
nervous system rarely craves these various stimu-
lants, or, if so, is able to restrain the craving.
All this unusual stimulation, while giving a
present uplift, has the never-failing tendency
to pull downward toward the ever-increasing
desire for more and more. Will there ever be
any help for this? Only one; not through laws
based on punishment; not through religious
teaching; not through our ordinary educational
methods. It must and will come only through
methods similar to those that have produced and
are producing our best grains, fruits, and flowers.
Our present partial state of civilization has
been acquired by conscious and half-conscious

NEW ENGLAND 22X

selection of the best and rejection of some of
those unfit for breeding purposes. If we must
have the stupendous pride and effrontery of
placing ourselves above the ordinary everyday
laws of the universe, we bring destruction upon
ourselves, like the fool who builds his tinsel house
upon the shifting sands. Education, training,
and preventive measures are obviously essential
makeshifts, but no amount of kind treatment or
education can ever obliterate heredity defects
from the race. Incompetents and criminals are
born with these defects. Why not accept this
fact squarely? The world will be a slaughter
house — an insane asylum, and imbeciles and
incompetents will walk the earth until the truth
shall at last percolate into the minds of all that
the unavoidable and unchangeable laws of nature
which apply to the improvement of domestic
animals and plants also apply especially to
ourselves as well.

In the matter of my own heredity: though
apparently frail in childhood and youth, I was
in many respects fortunate in having the will
and ability to work hard with head, hands, and
feet, averaging more than ten hours for each
calendar day for the past sixty years, and having
lately sought for the causes of this state of affairs,
find that all my ancestors and all my relatives on

222 LUTHER BURBANK

both sides as far as known, without exception
have been, and are, industrious, happy, prosper-
ous, respected, self-supporting citizens in their
several communities. Not one of them, either on
the Burbank or Ross side, have been deaf, blind,
imbecile, insane, incompetent, intemperate, or
addicted to the use of drugs or liquor; not one
of them has ever been in any way a public charge
or the inmate of any asylum; not one of them
has ever been in jail, but that some of them might
have been worthy of that position, I am not so
certain.

Although my faithful father, good mother,
and talented sister, Emma Louisa, had always
been life's best inspiration, yet I had never
known the companionship, joy, peace, and happi-
ness of domestic life until I was sixty-seven
years of age, when Miss Elizabeth Waters
placed her heart and hand in my care for life.
Since we have walked together, life has found
a new meaning, and as friendly pals we romp,
play, and labor in perfect accord. What an
inspiration, help, and encouragement a good
woman may be has been exemplified in the
lives of millions of others, as well as my own.
Much of my best w^ork has been accomplished
through her suggestion, counsel, advice, and
help. The world will reward my "Betty" with

NEW ENGLAND 223

the appreciation and love which she so well
deserves.

A first cousin, Professor Levi Sumner Bur-
bank, was a man of strong scientific proclivities,
and was in part responsible for stimulating my
love of nature, inasmuch as he lived with us at
times, and I often rambled with him in the woods
and gained from him a knowledge of the names
of rocks and flowers and trees. Another first
cousin on my mother's side, Silas Emerson
Harthan, is acknowledged to have invented, con-
structed, and operated the first electric railroad
ever seen on this earth. This was at Worcester,
Massachusetts, in 1865, and hundreds of people
who patronized this first of all electric roads are
now living. He also invented the heel-making
machines for boots and shoes, which did the work
of one hundred men. The roj^alties for this
invention were enormous. When he introduced
the electric lights in Worcester, many of the
inhabitants expected to see the city go up in
smoke and perhaps with some reason, as these
old-time electric lights used to flicker, sputter,
sizzle, and shoot blue sparks. The bankers and
business men gave it the "melancholy hoot" and
declared it was the most dangerous thing ever
invented. It was 1883 before the streets were
again lighted with electricity.

MRS. LUTHER BURBANK

or ''Betty," as we call her, tvho has
helped greatly in the arrangement
and construction of these volumes, for
which she deserves your thanks.

I

W I

/

4

NEW ENGLAND 225

The Hereditary Background

I mention these scientific cousins as suggesting
that there were certain prochvities that might in
part account for the tendencies of a plant devel-
oper in the strains of my heredity. But, as what
has just been said will further suggest, these
were seemingly of a somewhat formal and techni-
cally scientific order, whereas the inspiration for
my work has been found rather in an ardent
love of nature. I desired to deal with the forces
of life and mold the plastic forms of living organ-
isms rather than to classify the fixed and immu-
table phenomena of dead ones, which would
appear to be the province of the geologist.

Doub'less, however, the strain of interest in
matters scientific that was evidenced in the geo-
logical proclivities of my Burbank cousin consti-
tuted an important hereditary element that,
mingled with the more poetical and sympathetic
elements of nature worship which were in the
hereditary strains of my mother's family,
rounded out the characteristics of an essentially
practical plant developer who loved his task for
the very doing of it, yet who never forgot that
practical ends must be achieved.

My nature-loving mother, whose maiden name
was Olive Ross, traced her ancestry back to the

H— Bur. Vol. 8

226 LUTHER BURBANK

latter part of the tenth century, when a large
tract of territory in Scotland, known as Ross-
shire, was awarded to them for bravery in those
ancient battles for supremacy.

I have always felt that my passionate love of
flowers, which is said to have been manifested in
infancy, was inherited from her.

Despite the poetical element in her tempera-
ment, my mother was eminently practical. Being
of mature years when she married, she bore only
five children, and outlived my father by many
years, nearly reaching the century mark. She
passed her declining days in my home at Santa
Rosa, active to the very last and keenly alive to
all that was going on around her.

The Physical and Mental Environment
OF Childhood

My father's two-hundred-acre farm was
located about three miles north of the village
of Lancaster, Massachusetts.

There I was born — at least so the great family
Bible and the family traditions assure me —
March 7th of the year 1849. And there my
childhood and boyhood days were passed.

At that time the long-smoldering antislavery
fires were preparing to burst forth. And just
at the time when the great civic conflict was

NEW ENGLAND 227

becoming more and more obviously inevitable,
an intellectual and religious turmoil of world-
wide scope was evoked by the pronouncements
of Darwin and Wallace, which seemed to shake
the fundamental notions as to man's creation,
his past history, and his destinj^

These disturbing questions of national policy
and intellectual and spiritual welfare were part
and parcel of our everyday life in Lancaster
during the years when I was passing from
boyhood into adolescence.

As a child, I listened eagerly to the discus-
sions long before I could more than half under-
stand them, when on not rare occasions a visiting
minister or lecturer was entertained at my
father's table. Only the eager desire to hear
these discussions overcame the awe of a strange
face that led me always to dread the coming of
a stranger even though I longed to hear his
message.

I well recall how even in somewhat later
years I cringed before the kindly scrutiny of our
visitors and was dumb before their questions,
though drinking in their words with eager inter-
est so long as they were not addressed to me
in particular.

I shall always feel that I was sent to school
far earlier than was good for me. This, of

228 LUTHER BURBANK

course, was no fault of my parents. They but
followed the traditions of the times.

That the rules of the three R's should be
ground into the brain of the child while it was
still at its most plastic stage, was accepted as
unchallengeable.

The belief that the schoolhouse on every hill-
top and the church in every valley constitute the
landmarks of civilization was an ingrained
fundamental of the New England tradition.

And so youngsters who should have been in
the fields gathering flowers and reveling in the
sunshine, drinking in the music of the birds and
gaining strength and health for the tasks of
mature life, were too often crowded into school-
rooms that in winter were overheated and ill-
ventilated, and forced to the unwelcome and
unnatural and harmful task of scanning pages
of dots and pothooks and cramming their unwill-
ing brains with formula, to their permanent
detriment. Only on Saturday was there a
respite. Later I attended the Lancaster Acad-
emy for a few years. This was a very high-grade
preparatory institution.

Though not a university graduate, yet I had
most unusual educational advantages and at the
academy, after the first term, was always well
up on the "Rank List" of the ten best students.

NEW ENGLAND 229

My years at the academy were very happy and
useful ones, which later were supplemented by
a series of drawing and painting lessons by Prof.
Geo. C. Gladwyn, so long connected with the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Wor-
cester. He is now a very old man and I was
lately pleased to receive a reminiscent letter from
him. These supplemental lessons were taken
just fifty-four years ago.

Two years of my nonacademic education were
employed at wood turning and pattern making
(from the age of sixteen to eighteen) at the
Ames Manufacturing Company, Worcester,
Massachusetts. The work was interesting and
profitable, yet I preferred an academic educa-
tion and the outdoor life which I had enjoyed
on my father's farm, but the two years of
intensely accurate measurements of forms, sizes,
and adaptability have proved very useful in my
later inventive work among plants. No doubt
the world was open to me in the mechanical field
as my two years so well proved; as during the
time spent with the Ames Company, I helped to
construct one of the first practical self-moving
tractors for farm and road use ever operated.
The tractor was propelled by steam and when
completed moved itself through the streets of
Worcester, Massachusetts, for exhibition and

230 LUTHER BURBANK

test, and attracted wide attention. It was
designed and constructed for use in California,
and I am told was still in use hauling produce
and freight in the Sacramento Valley many
years before the modern tractors made their
appearance. This tractor had no steering appa-
ratus of its own, but depended upon a span
of horses attached to a long tongue to guide
it, but the Worcester people were so delighted
with this novel locotractor that two men
offered to steer it, which they did readily,
though horses were usually employed in this
capacity.

The Lancaster Public Library at that time
was the largest in all New England, except the
Public Library in Boston, and one may rest
assured that it was well patronized.

The Religious Environment

It is a little difficult for the present generation
to gain a clear conception of the Xew England
Sabbath of the time of my boyhood, and it may
readily be inferred that the day thus given over
to dolorous tasks was not one to which the child
would look forward joyously.

Nor, for the most part, do those who were
children in that generation look back upon the
Sabbath day experiences with satisfaction.

NEW ENGLAND 231

At least they served the purpose, however, of
supplying a church-going experience adequate
for a lifetime.

Little did the good people who so sedulously
led their flocks to church and subjected them to
the bombardment of repeated sermons, suspect
that they were cultivating an attitude of mind
that would insure that the churches of succeeding
decades should be nearly vacant. Indeed, they
would have been horrified had they been told
such a thing; yet I think we need not doubt that
on the whole such was the influence of their well-
meant efforts.

It adds to our understanding of the curiously
archaic relation of the church to the community,
even in that comparatively recent period, to
reflect that it was obligatory in Lancaster a
short time before for each family to contribute
to the support of the Unitarian Church.

My father was not a Unitarian by profession,
though his father was. However, father sup-
plied sundry loads of bricks without charge for
the building of a new Unitarian church, said to
be the last one built under the old regime.

In subsequent years the law that made the
Church practically a part of the civic organism
had been repealed, and thenceforward people
were allowed to follow their own inclinations in

232 LUTHER BURBAXK

the matter of church contributions. But this
severance of church and state, so to speak, did
not so much represent a reaction against the doc-
trines of a particular church, as a general reaction
against the obligatory recognition of any church
whatever.

For there had come about in the course of one
or two decades a most iconoclastic change in the
attitude of mind of the leaders of thought
throughout Christendom toward the tenets that
had hitherto been thought essential to man's
spiritual welfare.

Following the publication of Darwin's "Origin
of Species" in 1859, the intellectual world was in
a ferment, and nowhere was the influence of the
new ideas more quickly felt or tumultuously
argued than in New England.

I was ten years old when Darwin's iconoclastic
document was promulgated, and hence I grew
into adolescence in the very period when it was
most ardently bruited. The idea that animals
and plants have not originated through special
creation but have evolved one form from another
throughout long ages; and the logical culmina-
tion of that idea in the inclusion of man himself in
the evolutionary chain — these are commonplaces
to-day. They are familiar doctrines that might
find expression from eveiy orthodox pulpit.

NEW ENGLAND 233

But in those stormy days of the sixties, such
ideas were not merely heretical — they seemed
absolutely revolutionary.

If this new view were accepted, in the minds
of a large proportion of those who expounded
the subject in the early days in New England
nothing good would remain.

Of course the history of the spread of this
new doctrine duplicated the history of every
other new idea. For the most part, people
of the elder generation could no more change
their old views and accept new ones than they
could make over their stature or the color of
their eyes.

But, on the other hand, we of the younger
generation were quick to see the logicality of the
new conception, and were not hampered in its
acceptance by any cherished beliefs of a contra-
dictory kind.

Not, indeed, that we children for the most
part concerned ourselves greatly about the mat-
ter. We went through our regular task of Bible
reading and churchgoing and learned our Sun-
day school lessons, just as we performed other,
tasks that we could not escape. But none the
less were there instilled into the very sub-
structure of our minds the essentials of the new
manner of thinking, the new attitude toward the

234 LUTHER BURBANK

world in which we live and all its organic
creatures.

And when in later years we went out into the
world and came to choose our own paths and to
adopt mental and religious garbs of our own
choosing, the subconscious influence of the new
teaching everywhere made itself felt, determin-
ing a receptive attitude of mind that presaged
the new intellectual era.

If ever there was a time when it was true that
"the old order changeth" in the profoundest
application of the words to the most sacred
beliefs of men, that time was the closing epoch
of the nineteenth centurj'-.

Play and Work

It is worth while to dwell on these less tan-
gible aspects of the environment of boyhood,
because their influence was probably more impor-
tant than that of many events that have to do
with the regular routine of the workaday world

As to that routine not much need be said,
because there was little associated with it that
was individual or characteristic or that was
largely influential in determining the activities
of my later years.

The recreations of such scant leisure hours as
the New England child of this period could find

NEW ENGLAND 235

were the usual recreations of childhood. I was
rather too frail of body to enter with full enthu-
siasm into the rougher sports. But in general
the sports and amusements of the New England
child were of rather a subdued order, as be-
came the intellectual atmosphere in which
we lived.

Coasting and skating were among our most
boisterous pastimes, and the more usual recrea-
tions included such functions as spelling bees and
husking bees.

But the chief occupations of our leisure hours
were of a more prosaic character than sledding
or skating. My father was an unusually pros-
perous farmer, but he was also a manufacturer.
With a large family, he found it necessary to
supplement the resources of field and orchard.

And of course we boys were pressed into the
service as soon as we were large enough to lend
a hand at various of the simpler phases of brick-
making. It is recalled by my brother that I did
not undertake the turning of brick, which is a
work that is rather hard on delicate hands, with
unusual enthusiasm. But, on the other hand,
my brother Alfred and myself when quite
young, perhaps onlj^ six or eight years of age,
used to drive the oxen with loads of brick to
Clinton, Lancaster Village, Harvard, and other

236 LUTHER BURBANK

near-by towns, and this part of the work I found
thoroughly enjoyable.

When the time came for me to take up a defi-
nite occupation, I not unnaturally turned to one
of the factories, the more willingly because of
always having had the keenest interest in things
mechanical.

At the Lancaster Academy, which I attended
after gaining sufficient preliminary knowledge
in the district school, I was particularly inter-
ested in free-hand drawing, which was found
very easy, and had always an interest in design-
ing. So my father, observing these tendencies,
concluded that his son would be a mechanic.

I had not been long at work before the knack
at contriving things mechanical came to my aid.

The company were pleased with my work and
I might have remained indefinitely in their em-
ploy at a remunerative salary. But the clouds
of dust that came from the oak lumber began to
impair my health and it was thought best to
leave the shop for a while at least. So my ex-
perience as a manufacturer of wood products

ended.

Choosing a Profession

I was always frail of body and of delicate
physique, although wiry of build and not with-
out good powers of endurance. But shop life

NEW ENGLAND 237

further weakened me, and this led me to think
of taking up medicine as a profession. On the
whole it seemed to me that this would be most
congenial, and I studied for a year with the in-
tention of becoming a physician and have had
occasion constantly to realize in later life how
valuable this experience was. The knowledge of
physiology and practical hygiene thus gained
could many times be applied to the direction and
interpretation of plant experiments.

It is quite possible that I should have con-
tinued my studies and have graduated in medi-
cine had not the death of my father occurred at
this time. This changed all our plans.

From earliest childhood my chief delight had
been found in the study of nature and in par-
ticular in the companionship of flowers.

My earliest recollections center about the
pleasure experienced in wandering in the woods,
gathering wild flowers in summer, and in winter
making excursions among the walnuts, birches,
oaks, and pines that, viewed in perspective, seem
to have been almost of the proportions of Se-
quoias, but which visits of later years revealed
as trees of very ordinary proportions.

So it was perhaps inevitable that sooner or
later an occupation should be chosen that would
bring me hourly in contact with nature. But it

238 LUTHER BURBANK

was not until my twenty-first year that I entered
specificallj'' on the work, although of course I had
been trained in all the tasks of the farmer, gar-
dener, and fruit grower on my father's farm
from earliest childhood.

I had all along been serving an apprenticeship
that stood me in good stead now that the work
of market gardener and seed grower was taken
up as a business.

Yet it is not certain that I should have been
led to put this knowledge to practical use at this
time had it not been for the stimulation and
fresh enthusiasm that came from the reading of
an extraordinary book. This book was Dar-
win's "Animals and Plants under Domestica-
tion." The work was first published, it will be
recalled, in 1868. It probably fell into my
hands a year or so later. It came to me with
a message that was not merely stimulating but
compelling. It aroused my imagination, gave
me insight into the world of plant life, and devel-
oped within me an insistent desire to go into the
field and find the answer to the problems that the
book only suggested. In particular it showed
to me the plants of the field in a new light.

I had understood from Darwin's earlier work
that all life has evolved from lower forms; that,
therefore, species are not fixed and immutable,

NEW ENGLAND 239

but are plastic, and amenable to the influences
of their environments.

But I had not before understood to what an
extent species of every kind all about us vary,
and v^^hat possibilities of modification of exist-
ing forms are contingent on such variations.
From that hour plant life presented to me a sort
of challenge to test its capacities, to investigate
its traits, to invent new ideals of growth and to
endeavor to mold the plant in accordance with
these ideals.

Thus, thanks to the inspiration of Darwin's
work, my ideas were finally crystallized. The
philosophical bent inherited from my father and
the love of nature that I owed to my mother
were now to work in harmony.

Guided by the practical instincts that were
perhaps a joint heritage from both strains of
these ancestors, and the love of mechanics that
was only second to my love of nature, the inven-
tive tendencies that had found earlier employ-
ment in the manufacture of steam engines and
new turning devices were to be applied to the
plastic material of the living plant.

Just where it all might lead no one could say.
The field I was entering had been but little
developed, but to my aroused imagination it
seemed a field of picturesque possibilities.

240 LUTHER BURBANK

Meantime, of course, it was necessary that I
should gauge my enthusiasms in accordance
with the practicalities. I must make a li\dng, so
purchased a seventeen-acre tract of land in the
village of Lunenburg and began to raise gar-
den vegetables and seeds for the market.

Something of the practical success achieved
has been suggested here and there in connection
with accounts of later plant experiments. In
particular it maj'' be recalled that I found ways
of improving and cultivating sweet corn to meet
the demands of an early market; and it may be
said that in general my garden products were of
exceptional qualit3^

Something has been said also as to the hybrid-
izing experiments that were performed from the
outset, including in particular the work with
corn and with various races of beans. The ex-
periments were by no means confined to these
plants, however. I was like an explorer in a
new and strange land full of inviting pathways
and alluring vistas, and undertook to experi-
ment in this direction and in that, giving every
moment of spare time to the work of investigat-
ing the mysteries of plant life.

Every plant in the garden and every shrub
and tree and herb in field or woods was examined
now with new interest, always with first thought

NEW ENGLAND 241

as to its tendency to variation. Where I had
casuall}^ noticed before that individual flowers
of a species differed in details as to form or color
or productivity, accurate notes were now made
of such variations and the query was raised as to
whether they gave suggestion of the possibility
of developing new races under cultivation.

Some of the early experiments were full of
interest, and the knowledge gained through
making them laid the foundation for later suc-
cesses in plant development. But I had not
proceeded far before it seemed clear that such
experiments as were contemplated could not be
carried out to best advantage in the climate of
New England. My thoughts turned to Califor-
nia, where two of my half brothers had gone
many years .before. What was reported of the
climate of the Pacific Coast region suggested
this as the location where such experiments as
were planned might best be carried out.

And when the fii'st conspicuous success in the
development of a new race of plants had been
achieved, through the production of the Bur-
bank potato — with the story of which the reader
is alreadj'- familiar — I determined at all hazards
to move to California. With the taking of the
practical steps that followed that determination,
in the year 1875, a new epoch of my life began.

MY EARLY YEARS IN
SANTA ROSA

The Period of Bitter Struggle

WITHIN sixty days of the time when
the definite decision to go to California
was reached, I had sold my per-
sonal property and closed out my business at
Lunenburg.

The business habits that my father had in-
culcated had been so systematically followed
that there was little difficulty in closing up
accounts.

But, although I had been fairly successful in
the gardening enterprise during the three years
that it had been under way, so much money had
been spent on improvements that there re-
mained but a small balance to my credit. At the
moment, nothing could be realized on the farm.
So in starting for California I was entering on a
new field, backed by very little capital.

Meantime the well-known Ralston failure

occurred.

243

244 LUTHER BURBANK

Not feeling able to pay for a sleeping berth,
which at that time was a rather unusual luxury,
I was obliged to make such shifts as I could to
gain snatches of sleep.

A generous lunch basket had been provided,
and this served its purpose well, for the train
was sometimes delayed for an entire day far out
on the plains with no house in sight. Several
times I had the pleasure of sharing my lunch
with fellow passengers who would otherwise
have suffered hunger.

At that time it was a common experience
for axle boxes to become overheated by fric-
tion, and then it would be necessary to make
long stops until repairs could be made. This,
with numerous unclassified delays, made the
journey longer, but added zest to the journey.
At best, at that time it took nine days to cross
the continent, and the contrast between the
trains of that period and the luxurious expresses
of to-day is notable.

Early Days in California

I have said that two older brothers were living
in California. But I did not think Tomales,
where they lived, a suitable place for the work
in which I proposed to engage, because it ap-
peared that this region, being close to the ocean,

SANTA ROSA 245

had a climate that was not well adapted to these
experiments. I had been advised of conditions
by letter, of course, from time to time, and had
also read such books and articles dealing with
California as could be found, so had rather clear
notions as to what to expect.

The spirit of dogged persistency and of obsti-
nate effort in the face of difficulties is a New
England heritage.

Whatever the son of Puritan ancestors may
lack, he is almost sure to have a full endowment
of the basal instincts of "sticking to it.'

The Land of Promise

I fully appreciated the natural advantages
and beauties of the country to which I had come.
Letters of the period, as preserved by my
mother and sister, are filled with enthusiasm
over the marvels of the new land. I may quote
one of these letters as showing the impressioA
that California made upon me, and the oppor-
tunities that it appeared to offer for carrjang
out my treasured project, if ever means could
be found to make a beginning.

"Santa Rosa is situated," I wrote, "in a mar-
velously fertile valley containing one hundred
square miles. I firmly believe from what I
have seen that this is the chosen spot of all

LUTHER BURBANK AT THE
AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE

^^

*^y

SANTA ROSA 247

the earth as far as nature is concerned. The
climate is perfect, the air is so sweet that it
is a pleasure to drink it in; the sunshine is pure
and soft.

"The mountains which gird the valley are
lovely; then the valley is covered with majestic
oaks placed as no human hand could arrange
them for beauty. I cannot describe it. (I
almost cry for joy when I look upon the lovely
valley from the hillsides.)

"California's gardens are filled with semitropi-
cal plants, palms, figs, oranges, vines, etc. Great
rose trees, thirty feet in height, loaded with every
color of buds and blossoms, in clusters of twenty
to sixty, like a cluster of grapes (I would like to
pile a bushel of them in your apron) climb over
the houses. English ivy fills large trees, and
flowers are everyivhere.

"Do you suppose I am not pleased to see
fuchsias in the front yards, twelve feet high, and
loaded with various colors of blossoms? Veron-
ica trees, geranium trees; the birds singing and
everything like a beautiful spring day.

"The blue gum tree of Australia grows here
seventy-five feet high in five or six years.
Honeysuckles, sno wherries, etc., grow wild on
the mountains. There are so many plants more
beautiful that they are neglected.

248 LUTHER BURBANK

*'I improve all my time in walking in every
direction, but have seen no place which nature
has not made perfectly lovely.

"I took a long walk to-day and found enough
curious plants in a wild spot of about an acre to
set a botanist wild.

"'I found the wild yam which I hunted for so
much in New England, also the yerba buena, a
vine which has a pleasant taste like peppermint.
(I send )^ou a few leaves.) I also found a nut
that no one seems to have seen before (have
planted it), and several (to me) curious plants.
I mean to get a piece of land (hire or buy) and
plant it, then I can do other work just the same."

The intention to hire or buy a piece of land
was not realized for a long term of months after
it was thus confidently expressed. But the time
came, after weary waiting, when it was found
possible to hire a few acres. Then, although
working at carpentry during the day, I was able
to devote the long summer evenings to prepara-
tion for starting a small nursery.

I had come to California in October, 1875,
and it was not until the autumn of the following
year that the start in the line of work that had
been planned was thus tentatively made. And
even then my time of trial was by no means
over. For, as has been said, no capital was

SANTA ROSA 249

available with which to push my enterprise, and
it was necessary to feel the way, step by step.

To be sure I could have appealed to my
brothers, and they would very gladly have
helped me, but I was averse to doing this, both
from an inherent sensitiveness about money,
which is almost as universal a New England
heritage as the Puritan conscience itself, and
because I knew that my relatives, in common
with such other people as knew of my project,
were skeptical as to the practicability of such
experiments in plant development as were con-
templated.

Such skepticism was natural enough on the
part of practical men, for the things that I
hoped to do ran counter to all common experi-
ence. To think of changing the form and consti-
tution of living things in a few years seemed
grotesque even to many people who believed in
the general doctrine of evolution.

It was not generally admitted at that time
that the plants under cultivation had been con-
spicuously modified by the efforts of man.

And even those exceptional botanists who
believed that the cultivated plants ov»^ed their
present form to man's efforts were prone to em-
phasize the fact that the plants had been for
centuries under cultivation and to question

250 LUTHER BURBANK

whether the modifications that could be effected
in a single generation would have any practical
significance.

So it seemed to most people who knew of my
enterprise that it was a half -mad project and
one that was foredoomed to failure.

Of course I had only enthusiasm, backed by
the tentative results of early experiments in
Massachusetts, to offer in response to such criti-
cisms. So it seemed best to trust to my own
resources, so far as possible, and prove my case
according to my own method.

I would not be understood, however, as say-
ing that my brothers did not give me friendly
cooperation. On the contrary they were, as sug-
gested, ready to extend a helping hand, and
their aid was sought at the outset in the matter
of the propagation of the Burbank potato, the
ten tubers of which constituted, in my judgment,
my most important tangible asset.

The ten potatoes were planted on my
brother's place; and the entire product of the
first season was saved and planted, so that by
the end of the second season the stock of pota-
toes was large enough to offer for sale.

The sale of the Burbank potato helped out a
httle, but did not at first bring a large return.
Notwithstanding the very obvious merits of this

SANTA ROSA 251

potato, time was required to educate people to
appreciate it. They were accustomed to a red
potato, and a white one, even though larger,
smoother, and more productive, and of better
quality, did not seem at first a tangible substitute.
But in the course of time the Burbank potato
made its way, as has elsewhere been related,
until it became the leading potato of the Pacific
Coast. Long before this, however, I had ceased
to grow the potato. It was only during the
first few years, before its cultivation became
general, that I could profitably grow it for seed
purposes.

I began my nursery business at Santa Rosa
by raising such fruits and vegetables as gave
promise of being immediately acceptable to the
people of the vicinity. At that time the possibil-
ities of California as a fruit center were for the
most part vaguely realized, and it was first neces-
sary to educate the Californians themselves to a
recognition of the fact that in the soil and climate
of their State were the potentialities of greater
wealth than had ever been stored in the now
almost depleted gold mines.

Once that lesson had been learned, there
would be no great difiiculty about disposing of
the fruit, for the railways either built or pro-
jected insured facilities for transportation.

MY FIRST ADVERTISEMENT

When I first came to California I
brought with me a few specimens of
the Burhank potato. These were mul-
tiplied for two or three seasons, and
then offered for sale "for trial on this
coast." The success of the "trial" is
evident in the fact that whole regions
of California and Oregon are now
given over to the exclusive growing
of the Burhank potato, millions and
inillions of bushels each season.

SANTA ROSA 253

As to the latter poiiit, however, the conditions
were very different from what they now are.
The refrigerator car had not come into use, and
the possibility of transporting fresh fruits across
the continent at a reasonable cost seemed remote.
So it was natural that such fruits as the prune
and the olive were the ones that chiefly attracted
attention. Their products could be transported
anywhere, and there was an established market
that was practically inexhaustible.

But, as already intimated, the region about
Santa Rosa at the time of my coming was pre-
eminently a wheat country, and the farmers in
general were far more interested in cereals than
in fruit of any kind. It was only after the wheat
crops began to fail, through exhaustion of the soil
for the special nutrients that this cereal demands,
that the thoughts of the farming population in
general could be directed toward fruit culture.

It is necessary to make this explanation be-
cause nowadays everyone thinks of California as
preeminently a fruit country; and so it would
not be obvious, without this elucidation, w^hy one
could not start in the nursery business at Santa
Rosa in the year 1876, and hope for immediate
patronage and a reasonable return for his labors.

But even if the market had been more certain,
it would doubtless have been difficult for me

254 LUTHER BURBANK

to get a start, because fruit trees cannot be
brought to a condition of bearing, or even to a
stage where cions for grafting are available, in
a short time. And I had neither capital nor
credit, being virtually a stranger in a strange
land.

So it was necessary to continue to gain a live-
lihood by working at carpentry, in which voca-
tion I had now established a sufficient reputa-
tion to insure me pretty steady work. But
every cent that I could earn, beyond the barest
cost of maintenance, was put into stock for my
prospective nursery; and, as has been said, the
evening hours after the day's work with the
plane, saw, and hammer was over, were devoted
to the culture of seedlings.

The tedious and almost disheartening char-
acter of the task of establishing myself as a
practical nurseryman at Santa Rosa may per-
haps be illustrated about as tangibly as other-
wise could be done by the citation of memoranda
from old account books, which show that the
total sales of nursery products in 1877, the first
year that my nursery was supposed to be in
operation, amounted to just $15.20. The prod-
ucts that brought this munificent return are
listed as "Nursery stock and ornamental and
flowering plants."

SANTA ROSA 255

The following year, 1878, the total return
from the nursery sales was $84.

The third year the sales amounted to $353.28.

The fourth year they came to $702. And it
was not until 1881, when the nursery had been
for five years in operation, that the aggregate
returns from the sale of its products of all
descriptions passed the thousand dollar mark.
The specific figure, in 1881, was $1,112.69.

The figures thus baldly presented tell their
own story. They show that the nursery busi-
ness in California forty-five years ago was in
far different condition from what it is to-day.

Within ten years the quality of the trees and
the reliability of the stock in general of the Bur-
bank Nursery had become so widely known that
I was selling more than $16,000 worth of stock
per year. In the light of this ultimate prosper-
ity, the privations of the earlier years may very
well be minimized, even though they cannot quite
be forgotten.

There are many incidents of that early period
of probation, when struggling to establish myself
as a nurseryman, in order that ultimately I might
take up my plans for plant development on a
large scale, that would have a measure of interest
and would not be without importance in their
bearing on the later work ; but I must content my-

256 LUTHER BURBANK

self with the narration of a single incident, partly
because it has to do with an event that was at the
time of momentous importance to me, inasmuch
as it gave a much-needed monetary return, and
at the same time served to advertise the work;
and partly because it illustrates in detail the pos-
sibility of rapidly laying the foundations for an
orchard, and hence may be of value to some other
plant experimenters.

Twenty Thousand Prune Trees

The incident in question has to do with the
production of twenty thousand prune trees, well
rooted and ready to transplant for permanent
location in an orchard, in a single season.

It was in the fourth year of my attempt at the
development of a nursery business at Santa Rosa
— that is to say, in the season of 1881 — that I
produced the twenty thousand prune trees in
response to a "rush order," and in so doing forti-
fied a reputation for reliability and resource-
fulness that my earlier work had begun to
establish.

The order for twenty thousand prunes was
given by Mr. Warren Dutton, a wealthy mer-
chant and banker of Tomales, and later of San
Francisco, who had conceived a sudden interest
in prune grooving and wished to undertake it on

SANTA ROSA 257

a large scale with the least possible delay. Mr.
Dutton had seen sometliing of my work, and he
came to me in March, 1881, and asked if I could
furnish him twenty thousand prune trees ready
to set out the coming fall.

At first thought I was disposed to answer that
no one on earth could furnish twenty thousand
fruit trees on an order given in March for deliv-
ery in the fall of the same year. But, after think-
ing the matter over for a few minutes, I decided
that the project was not quite so hopeless as it
seemed.

If almond seedlings were used for stock, and
prune buds Jmie-budded on these stocks, the
thing might be accomplished.

Mr. Dutton agreed to furnish what financial
aid was needed during the summer to pay for
help and to purchase the required number of
almonds for planting. So the bargain was
closed, and I entered on the task with enthusiasm.
What made the project seem feasible was the
knowledge of the fact that almonds, under proper
conditions, sprout almost at once like corn, un-
like nearly all other stone fruits. I estimated
that could the almonds be secured at once, and
bedded in coarse sand for sprouting, they would
furnish seedlings that could be planted in nursery
rows in time for June budding.

I— Bur. Vol. S

VIEW IN THE SANTA ROSA
GARDENS

This picture gives a very good idea
of the way in which every inch of
ground is utilized in our gardens at
Santa Rosa. Note, however, that the
beds are sharply delimited by board
borders, and that there is evidence of
orderly arrangement — profiision of
plants of many species, but quite
without confusion.

f<iPfH99liafpip9|PP|!^

SANTA ROSA 259

There was no difficulty about securing the
ahnonds for plantmg, so the enterprise was
ahnost instantly under way. In addition to the
two acres of land which were then available in my
nursery, I rented five additional acres; and a
large number of men were engaged to plant the
almonds in nursery rows as soon as they began
to sprout.

The almonds w^re spread on a well-drained
bed of creek sand and covered with coarse burlap
cloth, which in turn was covered with a layer of
sand about an inch in depth. In this way we
could examine the almonds without any trouble,
by hfting one end of the cloth.

The seeds commenced to sprout in less
than fourteen days. Those which sprouted
were carefully removed and planted in the
nursery rows; the others were covered again,
and each day more and more would be found
sprouting.

The almonds were planted about four inches
apart in the rows, the rows about four feet apart,
on a piece of land adjoining the creek — a plot
now covered with fine residences, and known as
"Ludwig's Addition."

They began showing growth above ground
in a short time, and the ground was very care-
fully cultivated.

260 LUTHER BURBANK

By the time the buds hi a neighbor's prune
orchard were ready for use, the young ahnond
trees were also ready. Toward the last of June,
and in July and August, a large force of budders
were employed in placing the French prune buds
on the almond stalks.

After about ten days, when the buds had thor-
oughly united with the stalk, the tops of the
young trees were broken over about eight inches
from the ground; great care being exercised not
to break them entirely off, but only to break the
top down and still keep it alive.

If the top is broken or cut entirely off, the
young trees are about certain to die. This is a
mistake which many nurserymen make in trying
to grow June buds, but by bending the tops over
and leaving them on, none of the trees die, and
the buds start much better than by any other
plan.

Soon the young prune buds began to burst
forth. These were carefully tied up alongside
the stalk, and when they were a foot or more in
height the old almond top was wholly cut away.

By December first, about 19,500 of the trees
were ready for the planter; the others were fur-
nished the next season.

Mr. Dutton was greatly pleased, as he had
been told by all other nurserymen that it was

SANTA ROSA 261

absolutely impossible to produce trees in eight
months, and he was very anxious to get a prune
orchard at once. By systematic and energetic
work we were able to meet his exceptional needs.
Never before or since, I believe, was a 200-acre
orchard developed in a single season.

Success at Last

As suggested, the feat of producing the
twenty thousand prunes served to advertise this
work locall3\ Meantime the reputation for
dependableness of the Santa Rose nursery
products had been greatly extending, in a
very modest way to be sure, yet with cumu-
lative effect.

Also the general knowledge that prunes con-
stituted a profitable crop was spreading, and
about this time the demand for prune trees be-
came very great. Natural^ my reputation as a
producer of prune stock was enhanced by the
demonstration given with the twent}^ thousand
young trees. Prunes that had been grown in
smaller lots gave equal satisfaction to purchasers
in various regions. Great pains had been taken
that no tree should leave the nursery that was not
exactly true to name, and in all respects precisely
as represented. And nov/ I began to reap the
benefits.

262 LUTHEK BURBANK

The quest of prune trees became such a hobby
that it came to be the current jest when anyone
was asked for to respond: "Well, if you do not
find him in town, you will probably find him at
Burbank's waiting for some trees."

In course of time more land was needed, the
four-acre place in the very heart of Santa Rosa
was purchased which was in future to be my home
and the seat of many of the most important
experiments.

This place was then a neglected, run-down
plot which had been on the market for many
years. The land was about as poor as could be
found anywhere. ^lany attempts had been made
to cultivate it, but a crop had not been grown
upon it for a long time, if ever.

Such a plot of land did not seem to offer great
inducements for a nurseryman. But I had a
plan in mind that would transform it.

The first move was to place tiles under the
whole tract at a depth of four feet, thus draining
the land which had at one time been the bottom
of a pond. At the same time the ground was
carefully graded. Then, as stable manure could
be had for the hauling 1,800 loads of it were
obtained, and delivered on the four acres. This
was spread so thickly that it was impossible to
plow it under without the aid of several men,

SANTA ROSA 268

who followed the plow and pitched the fertilizer
into furrows as the plowing proceeded.

Further details as to the method of tillage and
the preparation of the soil have been given in an
earlier chapter and need not be repeated here.
But the subject is mentioned because I wish to
emphasize the possibility of transforming very
poor land into land of exceptional fertility.

To what extent intelligent manipulation of
land may be rewarded is illustrated in the imme-
diate sequel. For in the spring following the
season in which the new land was tiled and fer-
tilized, it was planted to fruit tree seedlings, and
the year following enough nursery stock was
sold from half the land to pay for the entire
place and all the improvements that had been
made.

So I now had a four-acre plot of the finest land,
located near the business center of Santa Rosa,
that had been paid for with ingenuity and knowl-
edge without making any serious drain on the
purse.

This same plot of land, modified in places by
treating with sand to make it suitable for raising
bulbs, has perhaps grown a greater number of
varieties of plants from regions near and remote
than were ever elsewhere grown on any four
acres of the earth's surface.

264 LUTHER BURBANK

The Long-Deferred Project

By about the year 1884 I was thoroughly
established with a nursery business that gave me
a sure income of ten thousand dollars or more per
year, and nothing more was required than to con-
tinue along the lines of this established work to
insure a life of relative ease and financial
prosperity.

But nothing was farther from my thoughts
than the permanent following of the routine busi-
ness of the nurseryman. At no stage of the work
in California had I given up the expectation of
devoting the best years of my life to plant experi-
mentation and the development of new races of
useful fruits and vegetables, and of beautiful
flowers. And now the time seemed to have
arrived when the long- deferred project could be
put into execution.

So from the very hour when the nursery busi-
ness had come to be fully established, plans were
made for giving it up.

The practical work in the nursery itself had,
of course, furnished a most valuable schooling.
I had learned the technique of growing seedlings,
and grafting, and the general routine of prac-
tical plant culture. And this obviously was
knowledge of a kind that would be of inestimable

SANTA ROSA 265

importance when I came to deal with rare exotics
and T\dth new forms of plant life. The practical
knowledge of how best to nurse a tender seedling
has had its full share in the furtherance of the
successes of later years.

Meantime a comprehensive knowledge of the
native plants of California had been gained
through having collected their seeds and bulbs for
eastern and foreign seedsmen.

At about this time there was an interest in the
native plants of California, and many nursery-
men were anxious to give them a trial. During
those years when my own nursery business was
only formative by gathering seeds and bulbs on
orders from various eastern and foreign firms
my income was increased. In the com'se of this
Avork various trips were made to the surromiding
territory. On two occasions, in 1880 and in 1881,
I visited the region of the geysers, which was
found to be a productive locality for new mate-
rial. And everywhere careful study was made
of the vegetation, both with an eye to the
immediate collection of seeds and bulbs, and
for future reference in connection with the
projected work.

The knowledge thus gained served well in later
years in suggesting material for hybridizing
experiments.

MIDSUMMER'S VIEW

This is a view across the center of the
main garden at Santa Rosa, with our
new home {which is really situated
across the street) at the left. The tree
with heavily massed foliage towering
above the building at the right is the
hybrid elm.

SANTA ROSA 267

Moreover, the work of collecting, preserving,
and shipping seeds, plants, and bulbs taught
practical lessons that were of great importance
later in the instruction of my own collectors in
foreign lands, who gathered the materials that
have had so large a share in the production of
new plant forms that finally appeared in my ex-
periment gardens.

It would have pleased me greatly to extend the
botanizing explorations to still wider territories,
and after the nursery business had come to be
fully established, about the year 1884, it would
have been quite feasible to do so.

The work was so organized that it might read-
ily have been left to assistants for periods of a
year or more, during which I could have traveled
and observed the plant products that seemed to
invite importation.

But to have done this would have been to break
in on the plan of the projected life work that had
already been to some extent interrupted for
a period of about eight years, during which
I had found it impossible to carry out new ex-
periments, except on a limited scale. Longer
delay was not to be thought of, being eager to
take up the projected work, and it was not
deferred for a season longer than was absolutely
necessary.

268 LUTHER BURBANK

Even before I could see my way to the aban-
donment of the practical work of the nursery-
man, projects were in hand that were preparing
the way for the new activities. In particular, I
had sent to Japan to secure seeds and cuttings of
a great variety of fruits. It seemed certain that I
could better aiford to hire collectors in foreign
lands to secure material than to go to foreign
lands in person in quest of it.

The first consignment of Japanese seeds and
seedlings arrived November 5, 1884. And when
the consignment was in hand, with the represent-
atives of exotic species of fruits, I felt that a
new era had begun for me, and that the long-
frustrated plans were about to find realization.

The following year, so well had the nurser}^
business prospered, I was able to purchase a farm
at Sebastopol, seven miles from Santa Rosa,
where the conditions were more favorable for the
growing of certain types of plants.

The second consignment from Japan, includ-
ing the plum, whose story has elsewhere been told
in detail, came December 20, 1885. The place at
Sebastopol where they were to be planted and
nurtured was purchased eight days later. And
with this purchase the project of devoting a life-
time to the work of plant experimentation was
fairly and finally inaugurated. For the Sebas-

SANTA ROSA 269

topol place, with its eighteen acres, was not pur-
chased for use as a practical nursery, but solely as
an experiment garden.

With the development of the Sebastopol place,
a new phase of life work began.

Thenceforward my time was divided between
the experiment gardens at Santa Rosa and that
at Sebastopol, and upon one place or the other
nearly all my experiments in plant development
were to be performed.

An interest in the nursery business was re-
tained for two or three years more, to furnish
money to carry out the initial stages of the new
experiments; for of course it could not be ex-
pected that new varieties of fruits and flowers
would spring into existence in a single season.
Nor could immediate purchasers be found for
them if they had been thus magically produced.
But from the time when the place at Sebastopol
was purchased it was determined that my ener-
gies were to be wholly devoted to the work of
plant development — the work that had been
projected, and at which a beginning had been
made in New England, and the hope of continu-
ing which had been the incentive to persistent
efforts during the intervening years.

PATIENCE AND ITS REWARD

The Period of Achievement

THE purchase of the farm at Sebastopol
was made, as recorded in the preceding
chapter, on the 28th of December, 1885.
As this was to be the important chief testing
ground for trees and flowers, it may perhaps be
of interest to describe somewhat in detail the
farm itself and its topographical surroundings.
In particular an idea should be given of the
indigenous flora of the region, because many of
the wild species were utilized in experiments of
great interest and sometimes of importance.

The picture thus presented of the environ-
ment of the work will serve, perhaps, to give a
clearer understanding of some of its details.

The plot of land at Sebastopol is known as
the Gold Ridge farm, although the place has
usually been referred to in the preceding pages
merely as the experiment farm at Sebastopol.

The farm has a gradual and gentle slope to-
ward the Santa Rosa valley. It is undulating

271

272 LUTHER BURBANK

in contour, and its chief slopes face the east.
The soil is sandy, no doubt part of one of many-
great sand dunes piled up by the waves of the
Pacific Ocean and the winds in past ages.

On this place there is a variety of soils and of
degrees of moisture. Some parts of the land are
so moist that the water seeps up to the surface
throughout the season, and the remainder is so
loose and friable that moisture may be found all
through the summer even six months after any
rain has fallen upon it.

Native Plants

At the time the place was purchased about
two-thirds of it was covered with white and tan
oaks, the native Douglas spruce, manzanita, cas-
cara sagrada, hazel, and madrona, while beneath
the trees grew honeysuckles, brodiaeas, calochor-
tus, cj^noglossum, wild peas, fritillarias, orchids,
sisyrinchiums — yellow and blue — and numerous
other wild plants and shrubs.

During the first few years following the clear-
ing away of this forest many species of clover
wholly new to me made their appearance,
twenty species or more. There was also an
abundance of alfilaria — Erodiiun moscliatum —
a Chilean plant, belonging to the geranium
family. This and the clovers growing in the

PATIENCE REWARDED 273

water made a splendid crop to turn under in the
spring, thus adding to the soil much nitrogen —
among the most expensive of all fertilizing
materials.

Later, three acres were added on one side of
this place, and again three acres on another — of
very similar soil — making now sixteen acres
closely covered with numerous species of plants
and trees used in the various experiments.

This farm is one of the most sightly places
in the vicinity. In the middle foreground lies
the broad Santa Rosa Valley with the city of
Santa Rosa in the distance; and almost under
one's feet is Sebastopol. Mount Saint Helena
looms up grandly in the east some thirty miles
away, more than four thousand feet in altitude.
Most of the hills and mountains of the region
are wooded with Douglas spruce, various oaks,
madronas, and manzanitas. Along the streams,
through the valley, grow Oregon maples, alders,
ash, willows, and hawthorns.

Looking over the valley of Santa Rosa one
sees one of the most prosperous communities
anywhere to be found. In the early spring,
great apple and prune orchards lighten the val-
ley with a sheet of bloom; and, later, fields of
hops here and there, with the vineyards along the
foothills, make a most enchanting view. The

A SIMPLE BUT IMPORTANT
EQUIPMENT

These simple garden tools are per-
haps more often used than any others.
The trowel is the universal transplant-
ing implement. The other tools are
soil looseners and rveed exterminators.
A small garden plot could he kept in
order with these tools alone.

PATIENCE REWARDED 275

floor of the valley is like one great park dotted
here and there with giant oaks, each one of a dif-
ferent form; here, perhaps, a hundred in a clus-
ter, there a half dozen, artistically grouped as if
by a landscape gardener. These are mostly
western white oak (Quercus lohata) though in
some parts of the valley there are numerous
patches of the black oak (Q. calif or nica) and
along the streams the live oak (Q. WisUzenii).

In the distant hills north and east are a great
variety of evergreen and deciduous trees and
shrubs among the most common of which are the
following conifers: the digger pine, sugar pine,
the yellow pine, the knob-cone pine, coast red-
wood, incense cedar, MacNab cypress, Goven's
cypress, and nutmeg tree.

Some of the other evergreen and deciduous
trees growing in this immediate vicinity are:
Oregon maple, box elder, Oregon ash, Califor-
nia buckeye, white alder, red alder, tanbark oak,
white oak. Pacific post oak, black oak, blue
oak, maul oak, mountain live oak, tree elder,
bush elder, cottonwood, bayberry, madrona,
golden chestnut, coast manzanita, and common
manzanita.

There are ornamental shrubs in profusion;
among others, the rhododendron, azalea, June-
berry, Judas tree, hawthorns, western sweet-

276 LUTHER BURBANK

scented shrub, California lilac, coast lilac, ma-
liala mats (trailing or creeping lilac), buckthorn
cascara, flowering dogwood, common dogwood,
chokecherry, meadowsweet, wild apple, burning
bush, poison oak, hazel, black willow, creek wil-
low, velvet willow, snowberry, oso berry, chamis-
sal, and salal.

Of vines and bearers of small fruit or of hand-
some flowers there are the wild grape, Oregon
grape, mahonia, huckleberry, bilberry, low
gooseberry, straggly gooseberry, canon goose-
berry, flowering currant, comj^act flowering cur-
rant, tree poppy, modest shrub, Labrador tea,
redwood rose, California rose, Sonoma rose, silk-
tassel tree, bear brush, yerba santa, yerba buena,
perennial monkey flower, mistletoe, Dutchman's
pipe, salmonberry, raspberry, thimbleberry, and
almost innumerable smaller plants.

These glimpses of the indigenous flora of the
immediate vicinity of the new experiment farm
will serve to give an idea of the abundance of
interesting native material, for the most part
hitherto quite untouched by the plant experi-
menter, that awaited investigation.

Anticipations

Had I felt at liberty to follow my own in-
clinations, paying no heed to the question of

PATIENCE REWARDED 277

practical monetary returns, I could have found
abundant material for the investigation of a life-
time without going outside the bounds of the
Gold Ridge farm itself.

My own tastes would have led me to devote
the major part of the time to the investigation
of flowering plants and the development of
flowers having hitherto unrevealed potentialities
of form and color and odor. But it was obvious
that one could not hope to make a living in this
way. I knew that in order to have even a fair
prospect of securing a monetary return that
would enable me to keep up this work, once the
nursery was abandoned, it would be necessary
to produce marketable fruits.

In this field alone could one hope to find a
ready sale for new plant developments, however
striking or interesting from a scientific stand-
point the results of experiments in other lines
might prove.

And of course the indigenous wildlings of the
immediate environment offered only scant mate-
rial for the immediate production of new fruits of
practical value. As a matter of course one must
depend for material largely on the orchard
fruits already under cultivation. These had
been educated for countless generations. Most
horticulturists regarded them as perfected be-

278 LUTHER BURBANK

yond any hope of conspicuous further develop-
ment. But in my own view what had been done
with these fruits might better be regarded as a
proof of their capacity for still further educa-
tion and development.

In particular, I hoped, with the new material
then being gathered from foreign countries to be
able to undertake experiments in hybridizing and
selection that might reasonably be expected to
produce altogether novel results.

How fully this expectation has been justified,
the reader is already partly aware. But it should
be recalled that the things which now seem axi-
omatic because they have been accomplished had
quite a different aspect from the standpoint of
the year 1885. Hybridizations that have now
been shown to be ready of accomplishment were
then regarded as quite impossible by all horticul-
turists who gave the matter a thought.

As has been pointed out, the attitude among
botanists and horticulturists generally was one
of profound skepticism as to the possibility of
developing modified races by hybridizations, or,
indeed, by any means whatever within limited
periods of time.

My own faith in the possibility of developing
new races through crossing and selection had
never faltered, however, since the earlier studies

PATIENCE KEWARDED 279

had given a clear view of the range of variation
of plants both under natural conditions and
under cultivation. And it may be taken as ade-
quate proof of confidence that I purchased
experiment farms and sent far and wide for
hybridizing material at the verj^ earliest moment
when my financial conditions made such action
possible.

Nor should it be understood that I had by any
means entirely neglected experimental tests dur-
ing all the period of my nursery experience. On
the contrary, I had at all stages of this experi-
ence devoted as much time as could be spared to
tests in cross-fertilizing and in selection among
the various nursery products. These had served
to give an expert knowledge of the results that
might be expected from plant improvement.
Tentative results had been attained that gave
support to the most sanguine expectations.

Orchard and Garden Materials

Indeed, it was largely as the result of these
experiments in selection that my nursery or-
chards had come to be of such quality as to com-
mand the attention of an ever-widening circle of
fruit growers.

A very wide range of fruit-bearing, orna-
mental, and flowering plants were grown, and

SOIL-STIRRING IMPLEMENTS

Here are a few of the various types
of plows and harrows, some of them to
he drawn by horses, others pushed by
hand. They are indispensable adjuncts
of gardening on a comprehensive scale,
though the tractors have now taken the
place of horses.

PATIENCE REWARDED 281

although no new plants had been produced that
could be compared with those of a later period,
the nursery had been stocked with the very best
existing varieties of different groups of fruits
and flowers, and all had been submitted to careful
comparative tests until those that remained were
of exceptional quality, and thousands of new
productions were under way that were un-
developed.

The nursery catalogue issued in 1887 — the
year before the nursery was sold preparatory to
devoting my entire time to the experiment gar-
dens then in an advanced stage of preparation —
comprises 24 pages, and preserves the list of the
exceptional varieties of horticultural plants that
had been selected and developed and supplied the
material for continuance and extension of the
experiments on a larger scale on the test ground
at Sebastopol.

Here were orchard fruits in great variety;
small fruits of the choicest types ; nuts of several
species, including chestnut, walnut, and pecan;
garden vegetables, including asparagus and
rhubarb; a long list of deciduous ornamental
'trees and shrubs, and an even longer list of ever-
greens; vines and trailing shrubs in interesting
variety; and elaborate series of roses, hedge
plants, bulbous plants, and bedding plants in

282 LUTHER BURBANK

general. All these had been collected and se-
lected and prepared for this very purpose.

With such materials at hand, it was obviously
possible to continue the work of developing new
varieties on an expansive scale so soon as the
grounds were ready, and as we have already
seen, shipments of plants from Japan began to
be received even before the Sebastopol farm
was purchased.

Materials from Abroad

The year following the purchase of the farm,
grafts of twelve varieties of New Zealand apples
were imported. And from this time forward I
was constantly in receipt of shipments of seeds
or bulbs or cions of rare or interesting plants
from all regions of the world.

Association was established with foreign col-
lectors who made a business of securing plants.
And as the work became known in the course of
succeeding years, amateur collectors everywhere
were kind enough to send me materials, so that
the experiment gardens became a testing ground
for seeds of many thousands of species that had
never before been grown in America.

Much of this is already known to the reader of
the early chapters of this work, but the facts are
emphasized anew because an understanding of

PATIENCE REWARDED 283

them is essential to the comprehension of the
work that was being carried forward.

The very essence of the new method was to
bring together, through hybridization, plant
strains that had been long separated, making
possible the recombination of hereditary factors
in such a way as to bring out, combine, and inten-
sify racial traits.

Obviously such an attempt requires the coop-
eration of collectors living in widely separated
regions. Explorers, missionaries, teachers,
travelers, botanists, sailors, and others by thou-
sands have placed at my disposal seeds, bulbs,
and plants from the whole world with never a
thought of personal reward. The native Indians
of many parts of North America, but more espe-
cially South America, have been pressed into this
service, as they of all others know where the best
wild plants and flowers are to be found and thus
have the opportunity to gather their seeds.
Through the teachings of explorers, missionaries,
and travelers, they have, in many cases, been
trained to become unusually good collectors.

I wish here to pay especial tribute to the faith-
ful service that has been rendered both by pro-
fessional collectors and by amateurs who knew
me by reputation only and who had no thought
of reward beyond the satisfaction of aiding

284 LUTHER BURBANK

in a work calculated to benefit humanity at
large.

Through these collectors I have frequently
obtained wild plants the economic value of which
had never been suspected, and which might
otherwise have remained unknown, which, when
combined with plants already in hand, proved of
inestimable value in the development of new
varieties of great scientific interest or of practical
importance.

Methods and Objects Sought

To give details as to the methods by which I
sought to blend the qualities of the plants that
furnished materials for the new investigations
when the experiment gardens were fairly in
operation, would be to repeat what has been told
in earlier volumes of this work.

The record of the results of these experiments
makes up the main bulk of all these volumes. So
it obviously is not desirable that I should attempt
to repeat here, even in epitome, what has else-
where been told in detail. Yet a few general
comments on methods and results may be of
interest.

Also it may not be amiss, by way of summary,
to outline very briefly the chronological sequence
of the chief lines of endeavor of the period, now

PATIENCE REWARDED 285

approaching the termination of its half century,
during which the development of improved
races of plants has been comprehensively carried
forward.

In the successive chapters that have told of the
different lines of endeavor, plants were naturally
grouped according to their botanical relations
or their economic uses, with only incidental
reference to the date of the experiment
through which this or that particular variety
was developed.

Perhaps, then, it will serve to coordinate the
work as a whole if we review in partial outline
the story of the endeavors of successive periods;
bearing in mind, of course, that many hundreds
of experiments were always being carried for-
ward simultaneously, and that many experiments
that achieved notable results at an early day, are
still being carried forward to obtain results even
more notable.

Taking the widest and most general view, it
may be said that the chief lines of investigation
at the outset of the period when my energies
were turned exclusively to experimental work,
instead of being hampered by ordinary nursery
duties, had to do with the improvement of
orchard fruits on one hand and with certain
flowering plants on the other. From the outset,

SEEDS IN THE GREENHOUSE

A corner of the greenhouse in seed
gathering time. Seeds of many vari-
eties are here collected for drying, pre-
paratory to being stored for the winter
or innmediately planted, as the case may
he. Note the sieves at hand, to he used
if necessary in screening out impuri-
ties, or separating seeds of different
sizes.

PATIENCE REWARDED 287

however, small fruits were given almost equal
attention.

It had been made clear to me, through nursery
experience, that the varieties of fruits grown in
California at that time, being all of eastern and
European origin, were not ideally adapted to
the new climatic conditions of the Pacific
Coast. It seemed desirable that new varieties
adapted to the new conditions should be
produced.

So one prime object of the early work was to
develop orchard fruits, and notably prunes,
plums, peaches, apples, and pears, that would
be of value in the development of the fruit indus-
try in California, but I had in mind also the desir-
ability of producing fruits that would be adapted
to growth in other parts of the world. Most of
the fruits then existing were lacking in impor-
tant qualities that are equally essential wherever
the fruit is grown.

It was determined from the outset to give par-
ticular attention to these matters, endeavoring to
produce varieties of fruit trees that would be
hardy and resistant to unfavorable conditions
and that would be not only heavy but regular
bearers. The matter of resistance to insect pests
and to disease was also given very careful con-
sideration from the outset.

288 LUTHER BURBANK

Seedlings that showed susceptibility were
ruthlessly weeded out, and the survivors became
the parents of races that are relatively immime
to disease.

Of course the combination of different species
to bring together long-diverged racial strains
was a fundamental part of the plan. Unnum-
bered thousands of hand-pollenizing experi-
ments were made each year, and the limits of
affinity between the different species were tested
by ceaseless and persistent efforts.

When species that were apparently somewhat
closely related proved infertile after cross-polli-
nation, it was not taken for granted that there
was real antagonism between those species until
the experiment had been tried over and over in
successive seasons, perhaps hundreds of times in
the case of a single pair of species, often using
different individuals and varieties of species.

Instances in which a hybridizing experiment
at last proved successful after many years of
failure — as for example in the case of the sun-
berry — will be recalled by the reader.

Practical and Scientific Interests

COMBIl^D

In general, practical results were sought
rather than the establishment of theories ; yet for

PATIENCE REWARDED 289

the most part, In such a line of experiment
theory and practice necessarily go together.

The only sharp distinction between our method
and that of an experimenter who is looking only
to the investigation of the laws of heredity is that
we were obliged to select for preservation a few
only among large companies of hybrid seedlings,
destroying the rest, and to that extent making
the record incomplete. It would be of great
scientific interest to trace the entire company of
a hybrid stock as to all its individual members
through successive generations.

But when the members of a fraternity number
ten or a hundred thousand or a million, as was
often the case in our experiments, the attempt
to preserve all and to investigate their progeny
through several generations would necessitate
the expansion of our experiment farm until it
comprised thousands of acres, and the employ-
ment of an army of helpers.

If this is true of the plants of a single series
of experiments, what shall we say of the aggre-
gate companies making up the ranks of plants
involved in two or three thousand experiments.
So soon as our work was well under way, and
throughout all the succeeding years, at least
three thousand different series of experiments
have been carried forward simultaneously.

J — Bur. Vol. 8

290 LUTHER BURBANK

Very commonly a million seedlings are in-
volved in a single fraternity.

Under these conditions, it will be obvious that
there was no choice but to select the few indi-
viduals that came nearest to the ideals of a mental
forecast, ruthlessly destroying the rest to make
room for the favored ones.

And in so doing we were of course duplicating
the method of nature herself, although the quali-
ties that determined our choice in any given case
were not usually those that would have fitted the
chosen individuals for preservation in a natural
environment. Our selections were made, of
course, with the object of fitting the plant to meet
human needs and tastes. The selections of
nature are made with reference to the needs of
the plant itself.

But if we make allowance for this difference
in the point of view, we may say that the
principle of selection is exactly the same in
each case.

And we are justified, no doubt, in saying that
the experiments in artificial selection made on my
experiment farms during the period under re-
view, constitute the most elaborate series of ex-
perimental proofs of the truth of the Darwinian
theory of Natural Selection that have ever been
brought forward.

PATIENCE REWARDED 291

Such experiments in hybridizing and selection
as were part of the everyday work at Santa Rosa
and Sebastopol, season after season, involving
thousands of species, had been performed else-
where only in isolated cases and by rare excep-
tion. Nowhere else had such a work been under-
taken on a comprehensive scale even with a few
species of plants.

The application of the method to thousands of
species, involving countless myi'iads of individ-
uals, was an absolute novelty.

Scientific Results

The results of the work in their bearings on
scientific theory may be briefly summarized.

These experiments demonstrated that the bar-
riers between natural species are much more
fragile than had been almost universally sup-
posed.

They showed that not only may we produce
fertile hybrids between a very large number of
related species of plants, but that equally fertile
hybrids may often be produced by the union of
species that are so widely separated as to be
classified in different genera.

They have proved that the first-generation
hybrids may resemble one parent or the other
pretty closely or may show a blending of quali-

CLEANING SEEDS

That "trifles make 'perfection'* is as
true of gardening as of any other art.
One of the trifles that is often neglected
by the amateur is the careful cleaning
of seeds, if necessary by washing, to
minimize danger of injury from fun-
gous growths or insects, and to guard
against the inclusion of foreign seeds
or impurities of any kind. An electric
power seed separator is used for larger
lots.

PATIENCE REWARDED 293

ties ; and that in the second generation, with rare
exceptions, there is a segregation and recombina-
tion of the racial quahties of the original parent
species, in which the extreme forms may more
or less closely duplicate one parent or the other,
and the intermediate forms may show almost
every conceivable gradation between the two.

They have demonstrated, further, that it is
possible, by selecting among the second-genera-
tion hybrids the individuals that exhibit any de-
sired combination of qualities, to develop, in the
course of a few generations of inbreeding, races
in which this combination of qualities is so accen-
tuated and fixed as to constitute a distinguish-
ing characteristic of a new variety quite unlike
the original forms.

Moreover, that the later-generation hybrids
might reveal racial traits that were not observ-
able in either of the parent species.

The segregation and redistribution of char-
acters often gave opportunity for the appearance
of qualities that have long been submerged,-
which by cumulative selection produced new
characters and qualities never before in existence.

As a tangible illustration, hybrids in the first
generation may show an enhanced capacity for
growth, and the later generation hybrids may be
graded from groups of dwarfs at one end of the

294 LUTHER BURBANK

scale to giants at the other. A corresponding
gradation may be shown in regard to other quali-
ties, such as color of flower, character of leaf,
flavor of fruit, productivity, resistance to disease
— in a word as to all the varied properties that
go to make up the personality — if the expression
be permitted — of a plant.

Many of these things are so well recognized
to-day that they seem mere matters of fact, quite
beyond challenge. But they were matters of
very ardent challenge in the day when they were
first being demonstrated in the experiment
gardens at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

When the first official announcements of this
v/ork were sent forth, through publication of the
brochure called "New Creations in Fruits and
Flowers" in June, 1893, the measure of the
novelty of the announcements may be gauged
by the popular interest aroused on one hand and
by the outspoken incredulity of the botanical and
horticultural worlds in general, save only the in-
dividual experts who had previously visited my
grounds and seen for themselves the truth of the
matters that were now given publicity.

It will serve to give an outline of the prog-
ress of the work if we briefly summarize the con-
tents of the successive catalogues in which the
new developments were publicly reported.

PATIENCE REWARDED 295

New Developments Announced in 1893

The first of these, as already noted, appeared
in June, 1893, under title of "New Creations in
Fruits and Flowers." The subsequent ones
were regarded as supplements to the original
publication. By running over the contents of
these supplements of successive years, an im-
pression is gained of the sequence in which
the more important plant developments were
brought to a stage of improvement that justified
their introduction. But of course it must not be
inferred that the different experiments had been
taken up in the precise sequence in which their
successful results were announced. Some lines
of investigation require far more time than
others; there are a great number of experiments
still awaiting announcement that were begun at
the very outset of my experimental work.

Nevertheless the successive announcements
may be taken as at least giving a general view
of the progress of the work; so we may briefly
summarize the contents of the original publica-
tion and of the earlier supplements to which
chief interest attaches because of the entire
novelty of the products they present.

In a later chapter we shall take up the theor
retical bearings of the new work. Here we are

296 LUTHER BURBANK

concerned for the most part with a bald recital
of the names of the more important new vari-
eties of plant life, presented somewhat in the
order of their introduction. Even as to these,
nothing like a complete list will be given, for the
minor improvements of plant life, large num-
bers of which have been referred to in the course
of this work, do not call for special refer-
ence here.

Even the recital of the names that cannot well
be overlooked may carry us to rather tiresome
lengths.

The new varieties of hybrid plants announced
in the publication of 1893 are listed in eighteen
successive groups, as follows:

(1) Hybrid Walnuts, including the forms
named the Paradox and the Royal. The pedi-
grees of the two hybrids are given, one
being a cross between the California and the
Persian walnut and the other between the
black walnut of the East and the California
black walnut; but the distinctive names were
given later.

(2) A new Japanese Mammoth Chestnut.
The origin of this chestnut is given, and it is
stated that the one offered is "the best one of
more than ten thousand seedlings, a tree which
every season bears all it can hold of fat, glossy

PATIENCE REWARDED 297

nuts of the very largest size and as sweet as the
American chestnut."

(3) Two Quinces, named respectively the Van
Deman and Santa Rosa, the former named in
honor of the Chief of the Pomological Depart-
ment of the United States Department of
Agriculture, who had particularly admired it.
A new Japan quince named Alpha, and a new
flowering quince named Dazzle.

(4) Plums and Prunes. These comprised ten
new varieties or hybrids, for the most part bear-
ing numbers only, but including the Golden, the
Delaware, the Shipper, and the plums that
afterward were famous as the Wickson and
America; also the Giant and Splendor prunes.

(5) Hybrid and crossbred Berries. Here
there are nineteen new varieties, including the
Japanese Golden Mayberry, the Primus berry,
the berry named Humboldt, afterward changed
by the purchaser to Phenomenal, and the Para-
dox, Autumn Giant, and Eureka. The strange
raspberry-strawberry hybrids are also described
and pictured, although not offered for sale.

(6) Seedling Roses and rose hybrids. There
are five named or numbered varieties in this list,
including the Peachblow and the one afterward
known as Santa Rosa, and one named later Bur-
bank by the purchaser. A number of Rugosa

A COLLECTION OF SIEVES

These sieves are, of course, merely
fine screens conveniently framed, so
that they can he used for various pur-
poses — screening compost, cleaning
seeds, etc.

PATIENCE REWARDED 299

hybrids are listed in addition, one of them being
mentioned as having received a medal from the
California State Floral Society.

(7) New Callas. These included the varie-
gated Little Gem, the Snow Flake, the Giant
Calla, and the Golden variegated Richardia alba
maculata, it being recorded of the first named
that it was selected from eighteen thousand
seedlings, and of the last named that it was the
single selection among hundreds of thousands of
bulbs of the spotted-leaved Calla that had been
raised for the trade from seed on my grounds.

(8) Hybrid Lilies. Only two specified va-
rieties are offered under individual numbers, one
being the large-flowering Lilium pardalinum,
afterward known as Fragrance, and the other a
dwarf form — growing only ten inches high and
producing from twenty to forty blossoms on
each of the short stalks — which afterward bore
the name of Glow. But the names of forty-two
species and varieties were given as only a partial
list of the lilies that had been combined in the
hybrid seedlings which even at that time made
up an extraordinary colony in the experiment
garden.

It was stated that some of the older hybrids
and seedlings were represented by as many as
a thousand bulbs each; that half a million kinds

300 LUTHER BURBANK

were yet to unfold their petals for the first time;
and that we were still planting from one to,
three pounds of hybridized lily seed every season.
So the varieties actually announced were only
the forerunners of a vast company of which
more would be heard in later years.

(9) New varieties of Gladiolus. It was
stated that six of the best forms of this flower,
from among a million or more seedlings raised
during the ten years preceding, had been intro-
duced four years earlier, one of these being the
first double gladiolus and the first of a type in
which the flowers are closely arranged all
around the spike, like a hyacinth. In the
catalogue ten interesting forms were listed and
succinctly described, among others a white
form with very large flowers, several dwarfs
with curious stripes and markings, and sundry
double forms.

(10) Hybrid Clematis. Six new forms were
named, including a double variety, with broad
snow-white petals, the flowers five to six inches
in diameter, that blooms almost constantly
throughout spring, summer, and fall. Another
variety was said to resemble a white water lily,
and it was said of the group that "No hardy
flower except the rose and the lily is so mag-
nificently beautiful as the new hybrid Clematis;

PATIENCE REWARDED 301

seedlings of which have been grown at the rate
of ten thousand a year for several years."

(11) A new Myrtle. This is described as a
new silver variegated Roman Myrtle or Brides'
Myrtle, originated as early as 1882. It had
been characterized by the California State
Gardener as the handsomest variegated shrub
he had ever seen.

(12) A new Poppy named Silver Lining.
Described as developed by six years' selection
from a sport of the Papaver umhrosum (But-
terfly Poppy), and as being of a glistening
silver white on the inside of each petal instead
of crimson and black; the outside remaining of
the original brilliant crimson, thus producing a
strikingly beautiful effect.

(13) A new plant, the Nicotunia. This name
had been coined to describe a new race produced
by crossing a tobacco plant (Nicotiana) with a
Petunia. A suggestion of the difficulties in-
volved in making this cross was given in these
words :

"If anyone thinks he can take right hold and
produce Nicotunias as he would hybrid petunias
or crossbred primroses, let him try; there is no
patent on their manufacture; but if the five
hundredth crossing succeeds, or even the five
thousandth, under the best conditions obtain-

302 LUTHER BURBANK

able, he will surely be very successful; I do not
fear any immediate competition."

It was stated that the flowers of the new
hybrid are handsome, white, pink, carmine, or
striped, and are borne in bounteous profusion,
but that no seed is ever produced, although the
plants are very readily multiplied by cuttings.

(14) Hybrid Nicotianas. These are hybrids
produced by crossing six or more different
species of Nicotiana. "Many of the new hybrid
varieties are only obtained after several thou-
sand crossings, under all conditions which
seemed to promise success; but now I have
perennial varieties with glaucous green foliage,
edged and mottled with white, bearing pink
blossoms in cymes two or three feet across with
from five hundred to two thousand or more blos-
soms in each cyme. Most of these hybrids are
readily propagated from root cuttings or slips;
none of them ever bear any seed; all are un-
usually hardy."

(15) Begonia-Leafed Squash. "A mammoth
squash which produced abundant crops for stock
feeding and has bright golden variegated leaves.
The unusual leaf variegation appeared four
years ago (1889) on a single vine, and by selec-
tion has become so fixed that at least 95 per
cent are variegated. The form, size, and uni-

PATIEjS^CE rewarded 303

form appearance of the squashes has also been
very greatly improved."

(16) New Potatoes. Two varieties are de-
scribed as being the best of several thousand
seedlings that have been tested for five years.
One is a long, nearly cylindrical, smooth, white
seedling of the Burbank; the other is a short,
flattish, oval, light-colored potato with a russet
coat, from a cross of the old "Chile" or "Bodega
Red" and the Burbank. "Both are superior
keepers, and have never shown any tendency to
become diseased."

(17) Ornamental Crossbred Tomato. This
new fruiting plant is named Combination and is
described as a cross between the "Little Cur-
rant" and the "Dwarf Champion" tomatoes.
"The curious plaited, twisted, and blistered, but
handsome leaves, sturdily compact growth, and
clusters of fruit, will make it a favored orna-
mental plant which can be easily grown by
everybody."

(18) "Other New 'Plants." A miscellaneous
list of hybrids, including some very extraordi-
nary combinations, particularly crosses between
the different orchard fruits, peaches, almonds,
plums, quinces, and apples in various combina-
tions. The photograph of a stem of apetalous
pistillate blossoms of a plum-apricot hybrid is

MARKING ROWS FOR
PLANTING

Nothing should be planted "hit or
miss'' in a garden. Anything that is
worth doing at all is worth doing
well, according to practical philosophy.
This picture gives a very useful hint
as to the manipulation of a line in
marking out rows of any length.

PATIENCE REWARDED 305

given; a picture that has peculiar interest now
in view of the subsequent development of the
plumcot. Mention is also made of the crossbred
tigridias, new cannas, arums, amaryllis, bro-
diaas, aquilegias, and asters, and a multitude of
other things not yet near enough to perfection
to merit a special description. These were to
appear in later catalogues.

A Summary of Conclusions

The list of "New Creations" thus briefly sum-
marized occupies fifty pages.

There follows a concluding section under the
heading "Facts and Possibilities" that sum-
marizes the work and that may be worth quot-
ing here for its historical interest. The general
attitude of the experimenter toward his work in
both its theoretical and its practical bearings is
rather clearly outlined in the summary conclud-
ing a catalogue which so high an authority as
Professor Hugo de Vries has seen fit to describe
as of an epoch-making character:

"There is no possible room for doubt that
every form of plant life existing on the earth is
now being and has always been modified, more
or less, by its surroundings, and often rapidly
and permanently changed, never to return to the
same form.

306 LUTHER BURBANK

"When man takes advantage of these facts,
and changes all the conditions, giving abundance
of room for expansion and growth, extra culti-
vation and a superabundance of the various
chemical elements in the most assimilable form,
with abundance of light and heat, great changes
sooner or later occur according to the suscepti-
bility of the subject; and when, added to all these
combined governing forces, we employ the other
potent forces of combination and selection of the
best combinations, the power to improve our use-
ful and ornamental plants is limitless."

Ten Years of Progress

In describing this work, Professor de Vries
has said that my catalogue of 1893, the contents
of which have just been summarized, gained for
its author "a world-wide reputation and brought
him into connection with almost all of the larger
horticultural firms on the earth."

These catalogues were largely bought up by
the United States Experiment Stations and
various American and European universities to
be used as textbooks.

It would be superfluous to recapitulate in de-
tail the plant developments that have occupied
attention at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol in the
more recent years.

PATIENCE REWARDED 307

In the course of the decade following the
announcements in the first edition of "New
Creations," the new experimental work was sub-
jected to scrutiny by large numbers of visitors,
including distinguished pomologists, horticultur-
ists, and botanists from all over the world. The
new fruits and flowers had been subjected to
tests sufficient to establish their merit. All skep-
ticism as to the validity of the announcements
that came officially from Santa Rosa had long
since vanished.

On the other hand, there were man}^ discrimi-
nating and appreciative notices of the new work
published in magazines and books.

If I were to summarize in a sentence or two
the main lines of progress of the most recent
decade, it would be necessary to give first place
to the development of the races of Spineless
Cactus, which reached a commercial stage in
1904. The work with Indian corn, including,
incidentally, the development of the Rain-
bow Corn; the development of the giant Am-
aryllis; the perfection of new races of Shasta
Daisies ; the development of new Roses, Gladioli,
and some scores of other flowers; varied work
with the Poppies; the development of new races
of Giant Crimson winter rhubarb; the produc-
tion of the Sunberry; new Plums, Prunes,

308 LUTHER BURBANK

Cherries, Peaches, Apples, and Plumcots ; and an
elaborate series of experiments with Cereals and
Grasses — these represent a few main lines of the
work that has occupied attention in recent years,
and will serve to suggest the further lines of
action that will claim attention in the years to
come.

Meantime the present publication, giving the
first complete and authoritative account of my
work that has ever been attempted, comes forty-
five years after the development of the Burbank
potato, which marked the beginning of my plant
development. Yet I have reason to hope that
there are years ahead that will prove even more
productive than any years of the past — perhaps
in their ultimate importance more productive
than all the forty-five years of past effort, as
these experiments are necessarily cumulative.

A SUMMARY OF THE WORK

What It Means to Science and
Agriculture

WE HAVE seen that the first edition oi
"New Creations in Fruits and Flowers"'
was published in June, 1893. Perhaps
we can best give an idea of the impression created
by the work by quoting a few paragraphs from
the introduction to the supplementary brochure
that was published the following year. Although
this second work was issued independently, it
consisted in the main of a fuller account of
some of the plant developments referred to in
the first work, together with a large number
of photographic illustrations. The two bro-
chures, issued respectively in 1893 and 1894,
may be considered as constituting the first official
publication of the main outlines of the work
in plant development which had begun in Massa-
chusetts fully twenty years earlier, and which
had occupied our whole attention imreservedly

since 1885.

309

310 LUTHER BURBANK

The impression created by the first brochure is
referred to in the introduction to the supplemen-
tary one in the following words :

"Twelve months have passed since the first
number of the 'New Creations in Fruits and
Flowers' was sent out on its mission among
dealers in trees and plants, great care being
taken to confine it to the trade only; but, before
the few hundred first published were all deliv-
ered, orders came pouring in with each mail, like
the falling of autumn leaves, for more, more,
and again more had to be printed, and to this day
the requests for 'New Creations' are increasing
rapidly, instead of diminishing, as it had been
hoped they would.

"Probably no horticultural publication ever
created more profound surprise or received a
more hearty welcome. Almost every mail brings
requests for them from colleges, experiment sta-
tions, libraries, students, and scientific societies
in Europe and America, and it has been trans-
lated into other languages for foreign lands, even
where it would seem that scientific horticulture
was hardly recognized; some asking for one,
others for two or three, or a dozen or two, or
more. All these requests have been cheerfully
responded to, but from this time on we shall be
obliged to make a charge. We cannot attend to

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 311

the ever-increasing avalanche of letters which
they occasion, a large portion of which are from
amateurs, with long lists of questions, which
would require years, perhaps a lifetime, to
answer.

"Five years ago we sold out a nursery business
which had been built up from nothing, and which
was paying us fully ten thousand dollars a year,
that we might give all our time and thought to
the work of producing new fruits and flowers.

"Do not think because they are raised in sunny
California that they are less likely to prove gen-
erally hardy. Are those already before the pub-
lic any less hardy or any less valuable than most
of the Russian fruits which have been so exten-
sively advertised for years? Are not the various
plums, walnuts, chestnuts, etc., which have
been distributed from our establishment, proving
to be hardier than even most of the Russian
fruits, and more valuable in all other respects?
But the best ones are yet to come.

"About twelve years ago, when, having by
thorough test found them good, we first com-
menced to introduce these fruits and nuts, send-
ing circulars to most of the nurserymen in the
United States, it was like trying to swim up
stream in a rapidly flowing river, as very few had
faith enough in them to invest in a tree ; but those

PERMANENT LABELS

These labels are important time-
savers. Each set of holes represents
a specific plant or a different type of
experiment, the key to the labels being
found in the record books. The lower
right hand label here shown might indi-
cate, for example, that the branch on
which it is tied bears blossoms of
the Sugar Prune (one hole at base of
label), fertilized by pollen of the Con-
quest stoneless prune (two holes near
center of label). Such labels as these
are loosely attached to the stem of the
plant that has been pollenized or
grafted. They are reasonably per-
m^anent, and minimize mistakes.

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 313

who were enterprising enough to do so, now find
themselves fully prepared to supply the great
and ever-increasing demand which has followed,
and are reaping rich rewards for the small invest-
ment of enterprise and coin which they then
made."

It will appear from this quotation that the
announcement of the new fruits and flowers
created an altogether exceptional interest, and
that this interest was not confined to any one class
of people. Although the announcement had been
made for the benefit of practical horticulturists
and nurserymen, it found its way into the hands
of the general public and of theoretical biologists
as well, and it would be hard to say which class
of people were most exercised over it.

If we briefly review the causes that underlay
this widespread interest, and, considering one
class of the public after another, attempt to ex-
plain just what its attitude was toward the new
work, we shall at the same time be able to present
an outline of the work itself and interpret it in
the light of the mental environment of the time
at which the work appeared with reference to the
broad problems of heredity.

Let us then attempt a brief analysis of the
attitude of (1) horticulturists in general, (2) the
public at large, (3) scientific biologists, and (4)

314 LUTHER BURBANK

theoretical working experimenters in heredity,
with reference to the revelations made in "New
Creations in Fruits and Flowers." In so doing
we shall gain an inkling of the bearing of the
work done at Santa Rosa on questions of
practical horticulture, of public opinion, and of
biological theory.

We have all been long acquainted with the
word "hereditary," used as an adjective, as ap-
plied to the inheritance of property or titles.
The word "heredity," however, used as a noun,
could not be found in any dictionary thirty years
ago, as it is now applied to the transmission of
characters and tendencies.

Why the Orchardists Were InteresteS

The supplementary announcement, issued in
1894, gave the names of several important firms
of dealers in horticultural supplies, who had pur-
chased the principal new varieties announced in
the brochure of the preceding year. The list
included the names of prominent nurserymen
from California to New England.

The interest thus evidenced by the practical
orchardists and nurserymen who measured the
value of the new products in terms of dollars
and cents may readily enough be accounted for.
Up-to-date dealers are always on the lookout

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 315

for novelties; and the fruits and flowers pro-
duced at Santa Rosa were novelties in the
most comprehensive and exacting sense of
the word.

They were not merely new varieties that dif-
fered by a shade from old varieties. They were
new forms produced by the combination of dif-
ferent species, often of species brought together
from different hemispheres; and they were so
radically different from the forms previously in
existence that many of them would without hesi-
tation be pronounced new species by any com-
petent botanist were they discovered in the wild
state, or were their precise manner of origin
unknown.

But mere novelty by no means fully explained
the interest of the orchardist in the new products.
In addition to novelty the hybrid fruits and
flowers had qualities of excellence that gave them
instant appeal.

The resources of the now familiar method of
half-tone illustration, at that time quite new, had
been utilized to show the exact appearance of the
new fruits and flowers, and so far as possible the
reproductions were made of exact life size, in a
good many cases one or both of the parent forms
being reproduced beside their hybrid offspring,
to point the contrast.

316 LUTHER BURBANK

It required but a glance at the pictures of the
new h3^brid j^runes and plums, blackberries and
raspberries, roses and gladioli, nicotianas and to-
matoes, to convince the skeptical that these were
products calculated to appeal to the most prac-
tical growers.

The full force of this will be evident if we
recall that the first announcement pictured and
described such fruits as the hybrid prune that was
afterward named the Splendor ; the hybrid plum
named the Wickson; the dewberry- raspberry
hybrid known everywhere in later years as the
Primus ; the offspring of the dewberry and Cuth-
bert raspberry now kno\vn as the Phenomenal;
the raspberry hybrid called October Giant and
the blackberry hybrid known as Paradox ; a seed-
ling rose of exquisite quality; and the profuse
double-flowering gladiolus. Interest was fur-
ther enhanced by the picturing of the hybrid
walnuts, the outlines of mammoth new quinces,
curiously diversified stalks of hybrid raspberries
and blackberries, leaves and stems of the rasp-
berry-strawberry hybrid, and the curiously de-
formed products of the ingrafted potato and
tomato vines.

The supplementary brochure of 1894 added
striking photographic reproductions of the nev7
white blackberry named Iceberg, a number of

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 317

hybrid lilies, the new and beautiful clematis flow-
ers, the miniature calla Snowflake, branches of
the new hybrid Wax Myrtles, a score or so of
curiously varying fruits of the Japanese quince,
and the new rose Peachblow.

There were also pictures showing the curious
and spectacular diversity among leaves of the
hybrid blackberries that could not fail to excite
the attention of the least observant.

The contrast between the broad solid leaf of
one plant and the fimbriated fernlike foliage of
another; the observation that some leaves were
arranged in groups of three and others in groups
of five — these were matters that caught the eye
even of the amateur, and, of course, excited the
interest of the professional student of plants.

Equally striking were the full-page reproduc-
tions of photographs showing various stems of
the hybrid raspberries and blackberries, some of
them slender and frail, others coarse and rugged ;
some almost thornless, and others bristling with
spicules or studded with threatening spikes. The
diversity of color among these stalks was clearly
suggested by the half tones, and the legend be-
neath one of them stated that "the colors vary
from snow-white, through lemon-yellow, orange,
scarlet, crimson, purple, light and dark blue and
brown to black."

AN EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENT

This is an exceedingly useful imple-
ment for leveling the soil preparatory
to planting seeds, and for packing the
soil about the roots of transplanted
seedlings and cuttings. It is a tool
that you can make with the aid of a
rake handle and a couple of hoards,
and it should he part of the equipment
of even the smallest garden.

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 319

That such diversities of leaf and stem could
be brought about by hybridization was a fact
that could scarcely fail to command the attention
of the practical orchardist, and to raise questions
in his mind as to whether there were any limits
to the possibilities of the new method of plant
development.

At all events, it was obvious enough that, quite
aside from the interesting questions suggested by
the hybrid leaves and vines, here w^re numerous
new varieties of fruits and flowers — more than
fifty of them specifically named or numbered—
having qualities that patrons of the orchardist
and florist might be expected to appreciate—
fruits and flowers calculated to enter into com-
petition on something more than equality with!
those already on the market.

Hence, no second call was necessary to chal-
lenge the attention of the orchardist, and no
second announcement was required for a large
proportion of the newly developed hybrids.

In a word, the practical orchardists called for
the new hybrid fruits and flowers at once, and
paid the prices asked because of the obvious
practicality of the new products themselves.

Their confidence has been justified by the
sequel, for great communities have been built
up — as in the case of Vacaville, California, one

320 LUTHER BURBANK

of the great shipping centers — by these fruits,
and whole communities benefited, and the occu-
pations of the entire population changed.

The Public Interest Explained

To understand why the general public became
so much exercised over the announcement of the
new fruits and flowers, it is necessary to recall
that the broad general questions of evolution
were still exercising the public mind at the time
when "New Creations" appeared.

Darwin's epoch-making work had indeed
appeared more than thirty years before, and the
theory of evolution had taken its place as an
accepted working hypothesis among men of
science, but so revolutionary a doctrine could
not be expected to make its way with the general
public in less than a generation.

At the earlier period, indeed, the man in the
street had known but little of the character and
implications of the doctrines involved. He per-
haps had heard that "Darwin thinks men
descended from monkeys," and with a few of
the conventional and obvious jokes associated
with that idea, the matter, so far as he was
concerned, for the most part ended.

But by the closing decade of the nineteenth
century, after the bitter controversies of the men

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 321

of science and the theologist had been fought
out, a fuller recognition of the true implications
of the doctrine of evolution began to permeate
the lower strata of mental life of the generation,
and thoughtful minds everj^where were eagerly
questioning as to what might be the full truth
and the final status of the evolutionary theory.

Into this atmosphere of inquiry and doubt and
solicitude came the document from Santa Rosa,
conveying a message that made itself heard far
beyond the province of the nurseryman.

Here were presented brief descriptions and
photographic illustrations of a large number of
new forms of plant life. These new forms were
in many cases so strikingly different from the old
ones that the least informed man could not fail
to note their diversity. Some of them obviously
differed as strikingly from their present forms,
to all casual inspection, as recognized species
hitherto familiar differed from one another.

In a word, here were illustrations of what
appeared to be new species of plants, and these
apparently new species were of known origin.
They had been develojDed under the hand of the
experimenter through the hybridization of old
species, followed by scientific selection of a char-
acter having obvious affinity with the operation of
natural selection on plants in the state of nature.

K-Bu. VoL 8

322 LUTHER BURBANK

Otherwise stated, the Santa Rosa catalogue
told of the creation of new valued species, by-
scientific selection, in an experiment garden, in
a brief term of years.

All details aside, the photographic pictures
showed offspring that seemed to be conspicu-
ously unlike their parents — not different enough,
to be sure, to belie utterly the familiar doctrine
that "like begets like," yet different enough to
demonstrate that new species may arise.

However vaguely the laws or principles of
heredity involved might be understood ; however
far from understanding the precise method of
production of the new forms the general public
might be, the tangible fact that widely divergent
forms of plant hfe might spring from the same
source — witness, for example, the brier stems of
strikingly different forms of cluster of utterly
different leaves grown from the seed of one plant
— was made clear beyond misunderstanding.

And this constituted, in the minds of many
laymen, a clearer and more cogent argument for
the truth of the doctrine of evolution than could
have been found in any amount of theorizing or
in the presentation of any number of illustra-
tions drawn from the records of fossil forms or
the theoretical reconstruction of the genealogies
of species of past eras.

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 323

The arguments of the paleontologist and the
embryologist ; even the arguments of the theoret-
ical botanist and biologist — these lay mostly
beyond the ken of the man in the street. But
he could readily enough understand the concise
descriptions given in "New Creations." With
his own eyes he could see the striking and even
spectacular differences between the plants of the
same fraternity therein depicted. In effect, he
received an object lesson in plant variation and a
convincing argument for the truth — the tangible,
demonstrable truth — of the doctrine of evolution
which to him had hitherto seemed an academic
question, involving the living forms of the
remote geological eras rather than the forms of
plant and animal life that are all about us in the
world of to-day.

And this, it may be supposed, sufficiently
explains and interprets the interest in "New
Creations" that was manifested by that great
body of intelligent laymen personified under the
title of "the man in the street."

The Interest of Theoretical Evolutionists
AND Botanists

To understand the interest of a smaller but
higlily important coterie of people who may be
broadly classified as students of evolution —

HYBRIDS AND PARENTS

At the left, a nut of the California
black walnut (Juglans calif ornica) ,
the staminate parent; in the center a
nut of the eastern black walnut {Ju-
glans nigra), the pistillate parent; at
the right the nut of the Royal hybrid,
all shown in natural size. It will be
seen that the hybrid nut is fairly inter-
mediate between the parent forms in
its general appearance, but that it
greatly surpasses either of them in size.

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 325

including college professors on one hand and
a few practical breeders of plants and animals
on the other — we must consider yet another
aspect of the intellectual atmosphere of the
closing decade of the nineteenth century.

We must understand that in this period,
whereas the general doctrine of evolution had
been accepted, there was wide diversity of
opinion as to many of its important details. It
could scarcely be said that there was any preva-
lent doctrine as to what forces in nature caused
the observed variation between wild forms of
plant and animal life upon which the operation
of natural selection is based.

The "survival of the fittest" was an accepted
doctrine, but the origin of the fittest was an
unsolved enigma.

A suggestion that new forms might arise by
combining existing species had occurred, doubt-
less, to many minds. But this idea was com-
bated or annulled by the prevalent notion that
the offspring of hybrid species are necessarily
infertile.

It is true that a few plant breeders, notably
Dean Herbert and Andrew Knight, had advo-
cated the idea that hybrids between true species
may be fertile, and had even seemed to demon-
strate the truth of this view some three genera-

326 LUTHER BURBANK

tions earlier. But the influence of the celebrated
experimenter, Carl Friedrich von Gaertner,
had served to give credence to the opposite
opinion.

Darwin had argued for the fertility of some
natural hybrids, but he had not been able to
make out a case that by any means carried con-
viction to the generality of biologists and bota-
nists; and the current opinion was that the com-
paratively few cases of the fertility of seeming
hybrids might best be explained either on the
supposition that the observed forms were not
really of the parentage ascribed to them; or else
that the parent forms, even though classified as
different, were not really entitled to rank as
independent species.

In a word, the doctrine of Kolreuter and his
followers, which w^ould make the sterility of the
hybrid offspring a test of the specific diversity of
the parent forms, was perhaps the stock doctrine
of the biological world.

The implications of such an argument are
obvious. If we are to answer the question,
"What is the test as to whether two forms are
entitled to recognition as different species?" by
saying, "They are different if their hybrid off-
spring are sterile, and they are only varieties if
their offspring are fertile" — we should obviously

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 327

supply a definition that takes the matter beyond
the range of argument.

And, inasmuch as the minds of the biologists
were now adjusted to the new Darwinian idea
that there is a wide range of variation in natural
forms, and that natural species are after all only
varieties that have separated a little farther, the
idea that the classifier might be mistaken in
ascribing specific difference to any pair of forms,
and that the physiological test of the production
of sterile hybrids might afford a final guide, was
not without its practical value, and made per-
haps not unnatural appeal to the more or less
befuddled classifiers themselves.

And so long as cross-fertilization was effected
solely between forms of animal or plant life that
were found growing wild in the same region,
and were obviously not very distantly related,
it was hardly possible to present evidence of the
fertility of hybrids of true species that would
be convincing.

The more fully the biologist grasped the phil-
osophical idea that the word "species" is after
all only a convenient formula to apply to a given
form rather for convenience of nomenclature
than as representing true and permanent dis-
tinctions, the more logically might he grasp the
dictum that any two forms that can interbreed

328 LUTHER BURBANK

and produce fertile offspring are not entitled to
rank as species, even in the modified view of the
meaning of the word species that the evolution-
ary doctrine has introduced.

Yet after all there is a certain tangibility
about the idea connoted by the word species that
the practical classifier cannot ignore. The black-
berry and the raspberry, for example, are so
obviously different in many really essential parts
of their structure that to deny them specific indi-
viduality would be to introduce an element of
iconoclasm that would shake the entire structure
of systematic botan)'.

So when evidence is presented that a black-
berry and a raspberry have been combined, and
that the offspring is a plant quite as fertile as
either of its parents, though markedly different
from both, the case seems to give evidence that
the offspring of true species are not necessarily
sterile.

And the fact that the new hybrid differs so
widely from either parent that it would be
named by the classifier as constituting a new
species according to ordinary standards, and that
it breeds true to its new form, seems to furnish
further evidence that new species of plant life
may conceivably arise by the hybridization of old
species.

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 329

In a word, a single case like that of the hybrid
blackberry-raspberry, described and depicted in
"New Creations" under the name of the Primus
berry, would seem by itself fairly to establish the
doctrine that new species of plants may arise by
the combination of old species.

Stated otherwise, the case of the Primus berrj''
would seem to furnish unequivocal evidence as
to at least one way in which the problem of the
origin of new species might be answered. The
survival of the fittest had been explained as an
essential part of the Darwinian doctrine. The
origin of the fittest (or at least one possible
origin) appeared to be explained by the exist-
ence of such a hybrid as the Primus berry.

The parents of the Primus berry, it will be
recalled, were the California dewberry (Ruhus
ur sinus) and the Siberian raspberry (Ruhus
cratcBgifolius) . Not only are these forms so
different in appearance that no botanist would
ever think of denying that they belong to totally
different species, but the fact that one of them is
indigenous to California and the other to Siberia
gives what might be called geographical support
to the opinions of the classifiers. Few indeed are
the forms of animal or plant life inhabiting the
Eastern and the Western Hemispheres that are
recognized as specifically identical.

UNNAMED BEAUTIES

Here are roses in profusion, of many
varieties, all new, and as yet nameless.
It would he futile to estimate how many
new varieties of roses there may he, all
told, at Sehastopol. Any number of
these new varieties have exceptional
hcauty, hut only here and there one
will he preserved for further experi-
ments, and rarer still are the ones that
will have the honor of introduction.

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 331

The same genera are represented on both con-
tinents, because the remote progenitors of all
races of animals and plants of the Northern
Hemisphere were once inhabitants of a common
territory in the region of the North Pole. But
there has been no opportunity for the mingling
of Asiatic and American forms of plant life
since the separation of the continents, imtil
civilized man in very recent time began to
transport forms of animal and plant life across
the oceans.

There had been no communication since a
remote geological era — probably not since the
last ice age; so on mere geographical grounds
the specific difference between the Siberian rasp-
berry and the California dewberry might be
accepted without further argument. But, quite
aside from this, differences between the two
forms are sufficient to give them independent
specific rank in the mind of any botanist.

The fact that one is classified as a blackberry
and the other as a raspberry will sufficiently
establish their diversity in the mind of the
layman.

Yet the report from Santa Rosa told of the
combination of these diverse forms, and of the
production of a new fruit differing very mark-
edly from either parent, although retaining some

332 LUTHER BURBANK

of the characteristics of each; and told further
that this new hybrid, far from being sterile, has
such fertility that it ripens its main crop of
berries long before most kinds of raspberries and
blackberries commence to hloom, and continues
to bear more or less berries all summer.

So the evidence that hybrid offspring of two
species may be fertile and may thus offer
material for the action of natural selection in
the creation of new species appeared doubly
demonstrable.

It is probable, then, that the announcement of
the development of the Primus berry would have
aroused no small measure of interest among
practical plant breeders and theoretical stu-
dents of evolution, even had it been made by
itself as a single and isolated experiment in
hybridization.

But the record of the Primus berry was accom-
panied by similar records of an entire company
of new hybrid blackberries and raspberries. In
the same section of "New Creations" that told
of the Primus berry, there was the record of an
equally remarkable blackberry-raspberry hybrid
of an entirely different character, the parents
this time being the California dewberry and the
well-known Cuthbert raspberry, the latter a
native of England.

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 333

Three hybrids of this cross were offered for
introduction, one of them being the extraor-
dinary berry that was afterward named the
Hmnboldt, and by its purchaser renamed the
Phenomenal.

There were two other hybrid dewberries of
only lesser interest. There was also the hybrid
between the Crystal White Blackberry and
ShaflPer's Colossal Raspberry, which produced
the berry famous afterward as the Paradox, and
from which new races of raspberries and black-
berries of almost every conceivable combination
can be produced, as the photograph showing
varied leaves, to which reference has already
been made, amply demonstrated.

Then, too, there was the hybrid between the
Japanese Golden Mayberry and the Cuthbert
Raspberry; and there were no fewer than ten
other raspberry hybrids that were listed specifi-
cally each under a definite name or number, and
offered for sale as new varieties.

Moreover, a list was given of no fewer than
thirty-seven named species of Rubus (the gen-
eric name of the tribe of raspberries and black-
berries) that had been utilized in the hybridizing
experiments through which the new varieties
have been produced; and the statement was
made with reference to the list that "the combi-

334 LUTHER BURBANK

nations are endless; the results are startling and
as surprising to myself as they Avill be to others
when known."

An idea of the work involved in the i)roduction
of these unique results is given in an explanatory
paragraph :

"Everybody appreciates delicious berries, but
probably not one person in each million has the
faintest idea of the labor and expense of crossing,
raising, selecting, and testing a million new kinds
of berries as the writer has done, and select-
ing with untiring diligence those which are to
become standards of excellence as the years
roll by."

The reader of earlier chapters of this work
will fully comprehend the sense in which the
phrase "a million new kinds of berries" is used.
We have learned that each variant type of culti-
vated fruit is regarded by the orchardist as an
independent variety, owing to the fact that it
may be propagated indefinitely by division or by
grafting.

"A million new kinds" refers to the endless
diversity of individual forms among hybrid
blackberries and raspberries, from among which
a score or so had been selected as worthy of
introduction. It should be added, however, that
certain of these, includhig the Primus berry and

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 335

the Phenomenal, were fixed new species which
breed true from the seed.

In another clause reference is made to "four-
teen years" of experiment, revealing the fact that
the blackberries and raspberries were among the
plants that we had found time to experiment
with extensively during the ten-year period of
the nursery experience that preceded the estab-
lishment of my experiment gardens.

It was partly because these fruits had been
experimented with for this long period that so
large a section of my "New Creations" was
devoted to new races of hybrid berries.

It should not be understood, however, that the
work with the blackberries and raspberries stood
all by itself in presenting evidence of the fertility
of hybrids, and in thus throwing new light on
the problems of evolution.

On the contrary, evidence of precisely the
same character was presented by one after
another of the different records that made up the
total of more than fifty new hybrid varieties of
nuts and orchard fruits and flowers offered for
introduction in the pages of "New Creations."

The hj^brid walnut, known as the Royal, one
parent of which was the black walnut of the east
and the other the black walnut of California, was
represented by its gigantic nut, depicted on the

TIGRIDIA SEEDS AT
WHOLESALE

This sail cloth full of tigridia seeds
gives a striking illustration of quantity
production in our experiments. Some-
times, as we have seen, only a very few
flowers are selected among thousands
to continue an experiment. But here
the experiment with the tigridias is at a
different stage, and large numbers of
seeds are selected, to give opportunity
for immense fields of variants the com-
ing seasons, among which selection will
he carried out more rigidly.

SIBIMAKY OF THE WORK 337

same page with the smaller nuts of the ancestral
forms. And it was particularly noted that the
new hybrid had borne nuts in abundance,
although the other hybrid walnut, due to the
union of the California and Persian walnut, had
not then borne fruit.

It may be added that the relative infertility of
hybrids between forms distantly related is recog-
nized in the course of the description of this
second hybrid walnut, in the statement that in
its failure to bear fruit it is like many true
hybrids; the writer having doubtless in mind
such examples as those furnished by the new
plant called the Nicotunia, a combination of the
tobacco and the petunia, which is described on
another page of "New Creations"; and the
equally interesting hybrid between the raspberry
and the strawberry, also described and depicted.

These sterile hybrids, with which the reader
of the present work is already familiar, illustrate
another aspect of heredity no less interesting;
but at the moment we are concerned with the
fertile hybrids.

And these, it may be added, include all the
fifty-odd plants described in the catalogue, with
the three exceptions just noted.

Without entering into specific details, we may
briefly note that the new hybrid plums here

338 LUTHER BURBANK

listed, and for the most part pictorially shown,
were ten in number, involving the racial strains
of species from Japan and China, from Europe,
and from various regions of America.

The hybrids among flowers were also given
full representation, ten pages of the catalogue
being devoted to them, and the new varieties
named and described including roses, callas,
lilies, gladioli, a number of forms of clematis,
and a new poppy. New types of hybrid seedling
potatoes were also listed, and a new form of
crossbred tomato, called the Combination.

The extraordinary Aerial potatoes grown on
potato vines grafted on the roots of the tomato;
and the no less extraordinary potatoes grown on
a stock having an ingrafted tomato top are also
shown, although merely as curiosities and not as
commercial products.

To complete the summary of the evidence that
was presented for the possibility of producing
new varieties through crossing old species, it
should be added that mention was made in a
separate section of numerous experiments with
seedlings of the ampelopsis, a new type of wax
myrtle, and "some charming, crossbred seedling
tigridias, new cannas, arums, amaryllis, brodi-
aeas, aquilegias, asters, and a multitude of other
things not yet near enough to perfection to merit

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 339

special description; yet some other hybrids are
worthy of much study." A hst of other species
that had been mutually hybridized begins with
the peach and almond, and names more than
twenty crosses between the various types of
orchard fruits — apricot, plum, quince, and apple,
as well as peach — in various combinations.

Without detailing further examples, it may
be said that this body of evidence was over-
whelming. It could be supplemented indefi-
nitely, of course, by examples from other plants
in my experiment gardens. But, without further
elaboration, the examples cited in these first two
catalogues sufficiently establish the fertility of
hybrids of many species of widely different
families.

Thenceforth there could never be any doubt
in the minds of practical plant developers that
true species, within certain limits of affinity, may
be interbred and produce fertile offspring.

On the other hand, the examples of the straw-
berry-raspberry, and the petunia-tobacco might
be cited in proof that species too widely removed
from each other produce sterile hj brids.

Thus the experiments as a whole show on one
hand the method through which material is sup-
plied for the operation of natural selection;
while, on the other hand, they show how barriers

340 LUTHER BURBANK

are ultimately acquired that prevent crossbreed-
ing from being carried to an extent that would
introduce a chaotic element in the scheme of
evolution.

The importance of such a demonstration as
this, made for the first time on a really com-
prehensive scale in the experiment gardens at
Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, soon came to be
generally recognized.

The New Experiments and Mendelism

Perhaps it may be of interest, in extension of
the present theme, briefly to trace the relation
of the new experiments to the particular aspect
of the theory of heredity that has most actively
claimed the attention of the biological world in
very recent years.

We refer, of course, to the doctrine of Men-
delism, which was to take the biological world
by storm in the first decade of the twentieth
century.

Of course the results of the hybridizing
experiments performed in my experimental
gardens and recorded in the catalogue of 1893
could not be at once interpreted in what are now
spoken of as Mendelian terms, because at that
time no one knew anything of Mendelism as
such. The experiments of Mendel had been

SUMMARY or THE WORK 341

made just thirty years before, and Mendel him-
self, as it chanced, had died in the very year —
namely 1884 — in which my first importation of
plants from the Orient, to furnish material for
experiments, was made. But, as the reader is
aware, the publication of Mendel was altogether
ignored, and nothing was heard of his experi-
ments until his paper was rediscovered by Pro-
fessor de Vries and by two others about the
year 1900.

But it is elsewhere pointed out that whereas
the Mendelian formula was not then recognized,
yet the essentials of the aspect of heredity that
Mendel espoused were abundantly illustrated in
the hybridizing experiments, the results of which
were published in "New Creations" (1893) and
its successive supplements.

It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader
that the essentials of the aspect of heredity in
question had to do, as stated by Mendel, not so
much with the great mass of heritable charac-
ters, as with some of the minor points of dijffer-
ence that mark varieties within a species. Men-
del himself did not hybridize different species,
or, if he did, the records of such hybridizing have
been lost. His essential experiments had to do
with garden peas and with the manner of trans-
mission of the minor difference between varieties

MIDSUMMER AT SANTA
ROSA

Not fewer than a half hundred of
totally unrelated species of plants are
growing in the small plots of ground
covered by this photograph. The tall
plants near the center of the picture are
hybrid forms of teosinte, the ancestor
of the familiar corn plant.

_^

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 343

of these peas — tallness versus shortness of stem,
purpieness versus whiteness of flower, yellow-
ness versus greenness of pod, and so on.

But the peculiar manner in which these
antagonistic pairs of qualities are given repre-
sentation m the offspring of parents having
the opposite traits is precisely duplicated when
the cross-fertilization is similarly effected be-
tween allied species that show corresponding
diversities.

In each case the essential fact is that certain
minor characters or groups of characters tend
to assume prepotency or dominance in hybrids
of the first generation; and that both the domi-
nant and the submerged (or recessive) charac-
ters appear in the hybrids of the second genera-
tion segregated and variously recombined, so
that where several pairs of qualities are mider
consideration the offspring of the second gen-
eration constitute a most heterogeneous lot, in
which the diversified traits of their grandparents
are mixed and blended and mosaicked together
in every conceivable combination.

Not only were these essential facts clearly
revealed by my early hybridizing experiments,
but they were succinctly expressed in the text
of "New Creations," and the diversities of forms
among second generation hybrids were illus"

SU LUTHER BURBANK

trated by photographs showing many types of
hybrid blackberry and raspberry canes and
leaves.

The diversity of second-generation hybrids
was illustrated by such other examples as the
Phenomenal berry and two other hybrids listed
in the catalogue under separate numbers and
announced as of the same origin.

But, for that matter, the segregation and
recombination of characters in the second gen-
eration, leading to endless diversity of variation,
was illustrated in the case of every new variety
named in the entire catalogue, with the exception
of the Paradox and Royal walnuts and the
Primus berry, these alone being first-generation
hybrids.

Quotation has already been made as to the
"million kinds" of blackberry hybrids of the
second generation. It may be added that in the
supplement of 1894 a photograph was repro-
duced that showed a "sample pile of brush twelve
feet wide, fourteen feet in height, and twenty-
two feet long, containing sixty-five thousand
two and three-year-old hybrid seedling berry
bushes (forty thousand blackberry-raspberry
hybrids and twenty-five thousand Shaffer-Gregg
hybrids) all dug with their crop of ripening
berries."

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 345

It was stated in connection Avith this picture
that of the "forty thousand blackberry-raspberry
hybrids of this kind, Paradox is the only one now
in existence. From the other twenty-five thou-
sand hybrids about two dozen bushes are left for
further trial, but from these selected ones, won-
derful new berries are appearing whose forces
are so fixed in the right direction that they gener-
ally produce good and productive seedlings."

It may be of interest, as giving farther insight
into the work, to quote the concluding sentence
which states that: "This pile of brush cost some-
thing like $700, and is one of fourteen similar
piles which were cremated on one of my places
last summer."

Of similar import is the account given of the
hybrid lilies, which were declared to be so varied
in character, thanks to the hybridizing of many
species, that "all the earth is not adorned with so
many new ones as are growing at my establish-
ment." A description of the varied character-
istics of some of these lilies, and two pages of
illustrations showing fifteen diversified forms,
are introduced by way of substantiation.

To the reader of to-day it maj'' seem a work
of supererogation to dwell thus on the fact that
experiments, the results of which were published
in 1893-1894, 1898-1899, demonstrated so obvi-

346 LUTHER BURBANK

ous a proposition as that hybrids are relatively
uniform in the first generation, and highly diver-
sified in the second and a few succeeding genera-
tions. But it must be understood that this was
the essential discovery that made possible a large
part of my successes in producing new varieties
by hybridization. And it must further be
recalled that the facts in question were ardently
contested by large numbers of the leading
botanists and the most authoritative students of
hereditary theory.

It was the demonstration made a thousand
times over at the experiment gardens at Santa
Rosa and Sebastopol that first demonstrated in
a comprehensive and convincing way that such
is the operation of the principles of heredity
in determining the characteristics of hybrid
generations.

And, as has elsewhere been suggested, there
is no doubt that it was these demonstrations that
prepared some of my most eminent critics,
including Professor de Vries, to accept the Men-
delian statement of this proposition when it
came finally to their attention.

It may be added that the subsequent history
of such aspects of the problem as came to be
associated ^vith the name of Mendel has shown
curious analogy with the history of the Weiss-

SUMMARY OF THE WORK 347

mannian doctrines to which reference has been
made in another connection.

Just as followers of Weissmann were obliged
to shift their ground to meet the evidence
brought by new experiments, mitil finally all
that remained of their doctrine had been sub-
stantially harmonized with and blended into the
broader and earlier theories of Darwinian hered-
ity, only the doctrine of continuity of the germ
plasm remaining as a permanent acquisition; so
the attempt to make "Mendelism" comprehend
the entire subject of heredity, has necessitated a
perpetual modification of the point of view, and
an amplification of the terminology to meet the
facts of more comprehensive experiments, until
Mendelism has come to be harmonized with and
blended in the more comprehensive knowledge
of heredity, leaving only the formulae associated
with dominance and recessiveness to mark the
individual contribution of Mendel to the all-
comprehending subject of heredity.

THE BEARING OF THIS WORK
ON HUMAN LIFE

On Improving the Human Plant

STUDENTS of heredity are becoming more
and more agreed that the same laws and
principles apply to the organisms of the
vegetable and animal worlds. This is quite what
might be expected, considering the fundamental
identity of protoplasm, which is the physical
basis of all life. But quite aside from any
theoretical deductions in the matter, a wide
range of experiments with many types of ani-
mals has brought conclusive evidence that strik-
ing analogies are everywhere to be found
between the manner of transmission of traits
and characteristics in plants and animals.

Moreover observations of human genealogy
have shown that man himself is subject to pre-
cisely the same laws of heredity that apply to
the lowliest vegetable or animal organisms. We
must of course make allowance for differences
incident to the elaborate organism of man, and

349

350 LUTHER BURBANK

we must not forget that man differs from the
ether organisms in that he can take conscious
note of the conditions of his heritage and of his
environment and can be guided in a measure by
what he thus learns.

This fundamental fact gives man a place
apart in the entire scheme of evolution. But it
does not remove mankind from the limitations
imposed by the laws of hereditary transmission.,
He can consciously modify his environment and
he can be guided in his selections by his knowl-
edge of heredity; but he cannot free himself
from the thralldom of environmental influences
or from the inexorable limitations of his ancestral
heritage.

In some respects, indeed, man is far more
hampered when he attempts to apply the laws
of heredity to his own race than he is in making
application of the same laws to the basis of tran-
sient animals under domestication. The necessi-
ties of the social organism that he has built up
place limitations on his freedom of selection in
the mating of individuals and even sharper
restrictions on his selections among the progeny
for the parents of future generations.

Indeed, until very recently it has not been
thought fitting that man should give any con-
sideration whatever to the scientific breeding of

THE HUMAN PLANT 351

his own race, notwithstanding the obvious advan-
tages that have resulted from the scientific breed-
ing of races of plants and animals.

Of late, however, it has gradually dawned on
the intelligent people of the world that the laws
of heredity which confessedly apply to man
might rationally be given consideration in the
breeding of races of men. The new science of
eugenics, named and in large part originated by
the late Sir Francis Galton, has received an
amount of attention in very recent years that it
could not possibly have hoped to receive had it
been brought to the attention of the public even
twenty years ago. And it cannot well be doubted
that the demonstrations as to the possibility of
improving the races of valued plants by selective
breeding made at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol
have had their share in calling public attention to
the possible benefits that may accrue from the
systematic and intelligent application of the
principles of heredity.

A general appreciation of the unity of life
forces as well as of life substances, due primarily
to the spread of the Darwinian doctrine, has pre-
pared the public to look with unbiased eyes for
the first time on the human race itself as an
evolution product that owes its preeminence to
the conscious utilization of natural forces and

352 LUTHER BURBANK

that may obtain still greater heights by the still
more intelligent utilization of these forces. So
it will be accepted as a mere matter of course
that we should attempt, in completing the review
of this work with the development of new forms
of plant life, to make application of the practical
knowledge gained in the experiment garden to
what might, without violence to words, be
described as the breeding of the human plant.

Such an application we shall now attempt,
concisely, yet with as much explicitness as is
warranted.

fTHE Great Principle of Selection

Even the most casual reader of this work
will be aware that the great fundamental prin-
ciple that guides us in all stages of our experi-
ments in plant development is the principle of
selection.

We select first the kind of plant that is to be
utilized in a given series of experiments. We
select the best individual or individuals to be
found among the entire company of these plants
at our disposal. We select other individuals of
the same or of different species as mates before
crossing, and in successive generations we repeat
these processes of selection and reselection over
and over.

THE HUMAN PLANT 353

Now in the human family precisely analogous
processes of selection are being employed, con-
sciously or unconsciously, in every community.
Of course the selections are not usually made
with the definite and avowed object of producing
progeny of an improved type; but the inherent
affinities that lead to the selection of marriage
partners are themselves determined bj^ prin-
ciples that might properly be said to be eugenic
— providing artificial restrictions do not too
greatly interfere with the freedom of choice.

Generally speaking, men and WDmen would
choose marriage partners having vigor and
health and beauty to the exclusion of those hav-
ing the opposite traits, were free choice given
them.

But, of course, under actual social conditions,
entire freedom of choice is impossible, and no
fact is more distressingly patent than the fact
that large numbers of persons who are obviously
unfit to assume the duties of parenthood bring
forth abundant progeny.

Indeed, under existing conditions, it is the all
too general observation that the notoriously unfit
members of the community are the ones that
produce the largest families.

Now it requires no very profound knowledge
of the laws of heredity to understand that such

L — Bur. Vol. S

BACK VIEW OF MY HOME
SHOWING VINES

This new house was built only a few
years ago, hut one side of it is already
covered with a heautifid mass of vines,
as this picture shows. This is only a
four years' growth.

THE HUMAN PLANT 355

a condition of things is not conducive to the
betterment of the race and cannot possibly con-
tinue long without great deterioration of the
race. No one could hope to produce an improved
variety of plant of any kind if he had not free-
dom of choice in determining that the more
desirable individuals should be mated and their
progeny preserved to the exclusion of the
progeny of the less desirable.

The entire foundation of plant improvement
depends wholly, as we have all along seen, on
such freedom of choice. And in proportion as
the plant developer selects wiselj^ chooses the
individual plants that have the best hereditary
tendencies, mates the right individuals, and
rigidly selects the best only among their progeny,
can he ever hope to progress in the direction of
improvement.

It would appear, then, that unless human
society can devise a means whereby a preponder-
ant number of the offspring of each successive
generation are the progeny of those members of
the community who are superior in body and
mind and morals, we cannot expect that the
human race will improve generation after
generation.

Any colony of plants left to breed indiscrim-
inately, good or bad, will inevitably degenerate

356 LUTHER BURBANK

from the stage of culture to which selection has
brought it. The reason for this is that the con-
ditions imposed by cultivation are different from
the conditions of nature and the special develop-
ment of the plant has taken place along the lines
of man's tastes and needs without special regard
to the needs of the plant itself.

But if you remove the artificial conditions, so
that the wild conditions of nature again prevail,
then selection will take place in accordance with
the needs of the plant itself, and this will imply a
partial reversion, in the course of a few genera-
tions, to something like the original wild state
of the plant.

Unnatural Standards of Civilization

Now the conditions of human civilization are
no less artificial.

Standards of excellence among civilized men
are quite different from the standards of excel-
lence among barbaric races. We do not count a
man as the foremost individual in his community
because he has the physical ability to wield a
heavier club than his neighbor, nor because of the
ruthless freedom with which he exercises his
superior strength.

Among savage tribes mere physical strength,
coupled with brute cunning and ferocity, may

THE HUMAN PLANT 357

determine leadership. Such are the natural and
necessary standards so long as man is at war
with wild beasts and with other savage men that
know no law except that of physical supremacy.

But under conditions of civilization all that
has been changed. The standards of excellence
that determine the position of men and women in
any given community are mental and moral
rather than merely physical.

They are in the broad sense of the word
unnatural standards, but they are the only stand-
ards compatible with the persistence of the
unnatural state of society that we term civilized.

So it has come about that the condition of men
in civilized society is closely comparable to the
condition of plants on a farm or in a carefully
cultivated garden. The very conditions of civili-
zation make it as essential that the human weed
should be removed and the unfit members of the
community prevented from propagating their
kind as that similar principles should apply in
the hothouse, the flower garden, or the farm.

Under the conditions of barbaric life, and even
under those of the high civihzation of classical
antiquitj'-, the principles of eugenic selection thus
implied were carried out with a good deal of
rigor. Even if the weaklings were not con-
sciously removed — and this was sometimes done

358 LUTHER BURBANK

— the stress of living was such that the abnormal
or weakly infants were claimed by disease, and
the adults who lacked strength and intelligence
were likely to succumb to the attacks of wild
beasts, to starvation, or to the onslaught of
human enemies.

So the principle of selective or eugenic breed-
ing was all along applied, even when no one com-
prehended its meaning or gave it a name ; and the
results are seen in the progress of humanity to its
present state.

In very recent years, however, there has been
great progress in the way of ameliorating the
environment, in particular the environment of
childhood, through improvement in the under-
standing of hygiene and the prevention of dis-
ease, so that there is no longer the weeding out
of the unfit in infancy that occurred even a single
generation ago; so the generations of to-morrow
are confronted with problems of selection for the
improvement of the human race more urgent
than ever before.

As to the precise methods through which con-
ditions more in accordance with the improve-
ments of the future generations of our race are
to be applied, we shall attempt no details of sug-
gestion. It suffices to point out the principle
and to suggest that there cannot well be two

THE HUMAN PLANT 859

opinions as to the desirability of restricting the
fecundity of the unfit, however wide the diversity
of opinion as to the way in which this may be
practically accomplished.

The Aristocratic American Race

Lest we seem to take a pessimistic view of th^
situation, however, let me hasten to point out that
the average human plant in most communities of
America to-day is somewhat comparable to the
average plants in the most highly developed col-
onies of our experiment farms.

The reader will recall the somewhat detailed
accounts that have been given of the cherry colo-
nies comprising 400 aristocratic families, and of
the various colonies of plums and quinces and
chestnuts and lilies and gladioli and watsonias
and countless others that are similarly made up
of individuals exclusively of good breeding and
of desirable qualities.

Now, whoever will properly gauge the condi-
tion of the human garden of to-day, here in
America, must realize that in general the racfes of
human beings that make up the population are
of correspondingly aristocratic lineage.

Here, of course, we do not use the word "aris-
tocratic" in the conventional sense. We are re-
ferring to the qualities that make a good and

360 LUTHER BURBANK

desirable citizen; and mean to imply that the
process of crossing and selection has been carried
out so well for the past ten gene^'ations or so in
America that a race has been developed having
a very high average of those traits that determine
"fitness" for existence in a civilized community.

It is true that there are certain strains of
abnormality — of physical degeneracy, mental
obliquity, moral perversion — that have made
their way, generation after generation, like weeds
in the garden, and that must constantly be reck-
oned with just as the gardener reckons with his
weeds. But the main body of citizens that make
up the population are at least moderately fit to
live in harmony with the normal environment of
civilization, and by the same token to reproduce
their kind.

Unfortunately, however, there has been a very
pronounced tendency within recent decades for
the individuals who were reared imder the health-
ful conditions of the farm and village to make
their way to the cities and to take up the rela-
tively abnormal life that is forced upon a
majority of the city population under existing
conditions.

The offspring of these city dwellers are reared
in an environment radically different from the
healthful one in which their parents were reared.

THE HUMAN PLANT 361

They are often crowded into dark, ill-venti-
lated tenements, amidst surroundings that not
only lack the light and air and joyousness of the
country, but are often positively vitiated as to
their mental and moral no less than as to their
physical atmosphere.

It is as if we were to take the plants that have
been bred in the rich, well-watered, carefully
weeded soil of a garden and transplant them into
an infertile, dry soil, choked with weeds and away
from sunlight.

By no chance could we expect the plants under
these conditions to attain full growth or to put
forth even a fair complement of flowers and
fruits.

The giant amaryllis, which under proper con-
ditions will put forth splendid stalks bearing
flowers ten inches across, would be reduced,
under such altered conditions, to the production
of meager stalks and, at best, a restricted number
of dwarf flowers little calculated to add to the
reputation of the plant developer.

The Power of Environment

This matter of environment, then, goes hand
in hand with heredity and is a final determining
factor in deciding the character of the individual
product.

TROPICAL LUXURIANCE

Partly because of the richness of the
soil, and partly because of the climate,
but largely because of the choice
selected varieties of the plants them-
selves and the special attention that
they receive, the plants at Santa Rosa
grow in truly tropical luxuriance. Old
residents who remember the present
Burbank gardens when the spot they
now occupy was an arid, desertlike
area, must rub their eyes when they
view such a scene as that here depicted.
No one who witnessed this transforma-
tion is likely ever again to pronounce
any soil worthless. Regulate the con-
ditions of moisture and aeration prop-
erly, and almost any soil becomes
productive.

THE HUMAN PLANT 363

It is quite useless to have practiced the most
rigid selection among plants for any number of
generations, and thereby to have produced varie-
ties of the most splendid possibilities — unless the
plants of the newest generation are given proper
soil and nourishment and sunshine they will come
to nothing.

And so it is with the human plant. Despite
the good heredity of generations of ancestors
bred, let us say, from the old pioneer stock in
New England or Virginia or from, the trans-
planted cions of that stock in the Middle or Far
West, the coming generations will be dwarfed
and perverted representatives of their race if
they are denied a normal environment, particu-
larly in childhood.

So one of the great problems that confronts
the humanitarian of to-day is the problem of
providing a proper environment for the human
plant.

In the decade covered by recent census returns
(1911-1920) the total population of the United
States increased by 14.9 per cent. But the rural
population increased by only 3.1 per cent and the
city population by 28.6 per cent. There are
entire States in which the rural population did
not increase at all, and these were precisely those
Middle Western farming districts that supply

364 LUTHER BURBANK

the healthiest of all environments for the pro-
duction of improved examples of the hmnan
plant.

It is not meant to imply that the environment
of the city is necessarily unwholesome. But it
requires no argument to show that the average
city dweller is less favorably situated for the de-
velopment of normal children than is the average
dweller on farm or in country village.

Children vitally need fresh air and sunlight
and the out-of-door life.

They need to be allowed to romp in the fields
and to come in contact with nature.

The city walls and pavements are a pitifully
inadequate substitute for the greensward and the
trees of the country. And a generation for which
this substitution has been made can hardly be ex-
pected to improve upon the traditions of its
parent generation.

So the student of the human plant will do well
to give full attention to the question of improv-
ing the environment of the human colonies with
which he is concerned.

The story has been told of the way in which the
soil of my experimental garden at Santa Rosa
was prepared and modified and even metamor-
phosed imtil the conditions were attained that
were favorable for the growth of my plant

THE HUMAN PLANT 365

charges. Without such attention to the physical
environment it would have been quite impossible
to produce the improved races that have been
developed at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

And unless a way can be found to make the
average environment of successive generations of
human beings better and better^ — instead of al-
lowing it to become worse and worse — we cannot
hope that the generations of our grandchildren
and great-grandchildren will maintain the aver-
age standards of our own time, much less
improve upon them.

Educating the Seedling

A word must be said also as to the influence
of environment in its bearing on the mental and
moral development of the individual in deter-
mining the bringing out or the suppression of
hereditary potentialities.

The mental and moral attributes of man may
be likened to the flower or fruit of the cultivated
plant, in that they are the qualities most recently
developed or transformed through selective
breeding. In token of their newness, they are
the qualities most easily altered or modified by
environing influences or by new racial blendings.

There are, for example, the qualities that are
prone to "Mendelize" in hereditary transmission,

366 LUTHER BURBANK

as we shall see illustrated and interpreted in
another connection.

The direct influence of environment on these
highly differentiated and hence unstable charac-
teristics of plant or of man is easily demonstrated
in any experiment garden or in any social
community. But even the most deep-seated and
fundamental qualities may be profoundly modi-
fied if the environing influences are applied
during the childhood of the seedling plant or the
human subject.

"As the twig is bent the tree is inclined" is a
maxim the literal truth of which is apparent to
the least-skilled horticulturist. The application
of the maxim to the human sapling is equally
familiar matter of fact to even the novice in
human pedagogy.

A Shakespeare is not born with a fund of
knowledge and a profuse vocabulary stored in
his brain; but only with the receptive quality of
brain fiber that will enable him — granted proper
surroundings — to acquire knowledge of things
and of words. Placed in childhood on a South
Sea Island, among savages, Shakespeare could
have passed his life without knowing a single
word of the English tongue, and without having
even the vaguest conception of the existence of a
written language of any kind.

THE HUMAN PLANT 367

This extreme example will serve to suggest the
extent to which the individual even of the very-
best heredity is dependent upon environment for
the bringing out of his inherent potentialities.

As another extreme example might be cited
the case of the child who becomes blind and deaf
in infancy through some accident or disease.
Exceptional cases like those of Laura Bridg-
man and Miss Helen Keller, in which, through
infinite effort, the other senses are made in part
to compensate for the loss of sight and hearing,
building up the brain through vicarious channels,
serve to give further emphasis to the fact under
consideration — the all-importance of the environ-
ing influences that we commonly speak of as
"educational" in completing the work which
heredity carries onlj^^ to the nascent state of
development.

The Combination of Races

Yet another respect in which the problems of
producing a better human race in our day run
parallel to the problems of the plant developer is
with reference to the foreign materials that make
up the stock for the propagation of future
generations.

It is easy to draw the inference from the r .est
casual glimpses into the past history of our race

368 LUTHER BURBANK

that the development of civilization has beeii
largely conditioned on the mingling of different
racial strains. It is scarcely too much to say that
each of the great civilizations of the past was
built by a mixed race. It was so in Egypt, in
Assyria, in Greece, and in Rome in the ancient
da3''S. It is true of the important races of central
Europe and of Great Britain in modern times.
And it is preeminently true of the American
race of our own day.

The point is too obvious for elaboration. No
one needs to be told that the colonial stock
that came to America in the early part of the
seventeenth century was itself made up of mixed
ancestral strains. And the most casual inspec-
tion of statistics shows to what extent the
increase of population of the past hundred
years has been due to the coming of immi-
grants from all parts of Europe, including
the representatives of nearly every race of
civilized men.

That such combination of racial strains, within
certain limitations, is likely to result in the devel-
opment of exceptional individuals will not be
doubted by any student of the subject, least of
all by the originator of new plants who has
produced striking results by a corresponding
mingling of divergent types.

THE HUMAN PLANT 369

But, on the other hand, it cannot escape atten-
tion that there are limits of crossbreeding beyond
which the plant developer may not advanta-
geouslj'- go. If he attempts to combine species of
plants that are too widely divergent, he either
gets no result or produces inferior progeny.
And if the races that are crossed lie just at the
limits of affinity, he may produce a progeny,
that, particularly in the second and later genera-
tions, become so variable and diversified as to
run counter in the main to all of his plans and
expectations.

We have seen this illustrated in many cases —
witness, for instance, the crossing of the tobacco
and the petunia, of the European and Chinese
quinces, of the oriental and opium poppies, and
of the various members of the genus Rubus.

The Need of Selection

In some of these cases, to be sure, individual
forms were produced that had very exceptional
interest and that might even supply material
highly prized by the plant developer for the
production of new races.

But it must be recalled that the plant devel-
oper always has full privilege of excluding the
imdesirables from the hybrid fraternity. He
can pick out one or two individual hybrids

A STRIKING CONTRAST IN
SEEDLINGS

Here are two seedling hybrid wal-
nuts of the same age, grown from nuts
of the same tree, and having had pre-
cisely the same care. They are second-
generation hybrids, hence the wide
variation in size and vigor of growth.
One of these plants will grow into a
gigantic tree; the other will remain
dwarfed always. Obviously there are
fine opportunities for selection among
the seedlings of the hybrid walnuts.
The larger tree grew to six feet above
the ground — the smaller one only one
and one-fourth inch.

{

THE HUMAN PLANT 371

showing desirable qualities, and can eliminate the
thousands that are unfit.

As a single illustration, let us recall the Phe-
nomenal berry, a hybrid of the California dew-
berry and the Cuthbert raspberry. It will be
recalled that this individual plant was the only
one worth preserving out of a hybrid colony of
many thousand individuals.

The one valuable plant was carefully pre-
served and nurtured. The thousands of unde-
sirables were piled in a heap and burned. The
blending of different racial strains had produced
one highly prized new specific form. Granted
the privilege of destroying the undesirables, the
experiment was eminently worth making and the
results were altogether gratifying.

But what if it had been incumbent on the
plant developer to preserve the thousands of
undesirable hybrids?

Not all of them were altogether obnoxious,
to be sure. Yet a very large proportion of them
combined racial traits of remote ancestors in
such a way as to make them very unfit members
of a colony of cultivated plants.

Lacking the selecting hand of the plant experi-
menter, which could ruthlessly rout out these
undesirables, the net result of the hybridizing
experiment would have been to produce a vast

372 LUTHER BURBANK

colony of brambles far less desirable on the
average than their parent forms.

America, the Melting Pot of Nations

Making the application, it becomes at least a
very serious question as to whether the recent
altogether unprecedented influx of immigrants
of many widely divergent races are not supply-
ing material that, blended with the existing
American stock, may produce results as start-
ling and on the whole of as doubtful value as
those produced among plants when indiscrimi-
nately hybridized.

A certain admixture of new strains of these
varied races might not be without its advantages.
It has been urged that there are qualities of
temperament associated with a love of music
and the arts characterizing the Latin races, for
example, that might advantageously be mingled
with the somewhat cold and practical tem-
perament of the American race, to give it
a new quality, just as new flavors are bred
into the racial strains of plums or pears or
peaches.

There is no gainsaying the possibility that
such blending may have its advantages. But
there seems danger at the moment that the
fiaatter may be overdone.

THE HUMAN PLANT 373

When we read of the coming of as many as
a million or more aliens in a single year; and
when we are told that of those that come from
southeastern Europe more than 35 per cent are
of undeveloped or atavistic type — we cannot
escape a feeling of solicitude over the introduc-
tion of so high a percentage of blood of so doubt-
ful a character into the strains of our developed
colony of American races.

It must be recalled that when the plant devel-
oper brings from Japan or from Europe or from
Asia a new race of plants to combine with his
native stock, he selects always the most desirable
individuals that are to be found. Very com-
monly he breeds the newcomers for successive
generations and makes repeated selections before
he finds an individual suitable for his hybridizing
experiment.

He knows very well that if he were to choose
inferior members of any stock for his experi-
ments he would be working in the wrong direc-
tion, and could not hope to produce improved
races.

But many of the immigrants that are flooding
in on us, cannot even by the most liberal inter-
pretation be said to represent the best strains
of the varied racial stocks from which they have
sprung.

374 LUTHKR BURBANK

They are in large proportion confessedly
inferior representatives of their races.

There is much evidence to show that they
even include large numbers of defectives, who,
owing to their alien tongues and habits, can with
great difficulty be properly adjudged by the
immigrant officials and denied admission in
accordance with the laws that are intended to
prevent the coming of the notoriously unfit.

The Greatest Migration in History

But even if it were supposed that a large
majority of newcomers are real representatives
of the best of their alien racial strains, their
coming in such numbers would still make them
objects of solicitude to the student of heredity.

The American race of to-day has been built
up along certain lines not only of physical, but
of mental and moral development that have
adapted it for a social and political environment
that is far different from that from which many
of these aliens come. Transplantation to the
new environment may have a certain effect on
the immigrants, just as transplantation to the
soil of California has had its effect on large
numbers of exotic plants.

But in one case, as in the other, such changes
are, after all, only matters of minor detail.

THE HUMAN PLANT 375

The modifications wrought by the environ-
ment are matters of detail; the fundamentals
of heredity, built up by thousands of genera-
tions of past environments, are fixed beyond
immediate change.

Nor can we doubt that the same thing is true
of the fundamental physical, mental, and moral
traits of the alien races that make up the great
army of immigrants that come to our ports in
such numbers as to make their migration, in all
probability, by far the largest and most rapid
migration of human races that ever took place
in the history of the world.

The total number of immigrants that have
come to America since 1880 — within the com-
pass, therefore, of a single generation — is more
than twenty-three million.

This is a number in excess of the total
population of America at any census prior
to 1850.

Such an influx must of necessity change in
very large measure the aggregate heredity of
the population of America. Whatever the
American race was in the middle of the nine-
teenth century, it is something far different
to-day. That at least is axiomatic, regardless
of our estimate as to whether the change has
been an improvement or otherwise.

376 LUTHER BURBANK

The aggregate status of the population of the
plant colonies at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol
to-day has probably not more greatly changed
from the status of the colonies of 1886 than has
the average status of the American race changed
in the same period.

Doubtless it would be impossible for any-
one to gauge accurately the precise character
of the modifications in one case or the
other.

But in general terms it may safely be affirmed
that the members of the plant colonies have vastly
improved in the sense that they have been modi-
fied as to leaf or flower or fruit in such ways as
to make them better adapted to meet the needs
and tastes and desires of men.

Whether the crossbred population of America
has been similarly improved in its average
adjustment to the needs of a highly evolved
social environment is a question that we shall not
attempt to decide.

Here, as before, it suffices to point out the
conditions and to suggest analogies with the
crossbred plant colonies; but here also we must
not overlook the fact that the plant developer's
privilege of weeding out the unfit members of
his hybrid colony may change the entire com-
plexion of the situation.

THE HUMAN PLANT 377

In a word, then, we might advantageously
apply to the human plant the same general prin-
ciple which we saw to be the most fundamental
one guiding us in our plant experiments, saying
that here, no less than in the case of the actual
plant, selection is the first and last word.

What was said in concluding an earlier chap-
ter with reference to plant breeding, may now
advantageously be repeated with reference to
the improvement of human beings : "The begin-
ning is selection, and the end is selection."

No one who has given the matter a serious
thought can but have observed that the cause for
the fall of all past nations has been through the
fact of the false idea that the human race is not
subject to the same laws of nature that govern
all other forms of life. Man is a part of nature
and can never improve except through some
form of intelligent selection. Every civilization
will certainly disintegrate and pass away in
destruction and wreckage if we depend on teach-
ing rather than on correct breeding. Every
species of plant, animal, or man descends to
destruction and annihilation if the weeds are
allowed to breed unchecked. The best must
sooner or later be overcome by the vastly greater
fecundity of the weeds. Do not deceive your-
self with platitudes as to moral training. It is

378 LUTHER BURBANK

useless unless moral breeding is an accompani-
ment. How foolish have been our teachings of
the past; fables in place of facts will lead to
gradual but certain destruction, as they always
have and always will.

It is not a simple task to put experience on
paper; to seek and find in a thousand experi-
ments, dismissed as failures, the three or the five
important truths they alone revealed; to glean
from the experiments which proved successful
the vital discoveries which they have yielded, and
to appraise them in order of their real impor-
tance; to arrange the facts in orderly sequence
and to distill from the mass of theory, which has
gone hand in hand with practice, those essentials
of probability necessary to cement together a
useful structure.

If we are to benefit by the experience of any
man, we must have before us not only the things
which he knows, but the things which he believes,
arrayed with an eye to relative importance, with
facts, figures, formulae, beliefs, theories, pur-
poses and hopes brought together into a state
of unified reconciliation.

INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ACACIA
An Acacia Tree in Bloom,
VIII, 144.

ADVERTISEMENT
My First Advertisement,
VIII, 252

ALLIUM

A South American Alliimi,
V, 194

A New Allium, V, 202

ALMOND

The Almond and Its Rela-
tives, VII, 326

Selected Almonds, VII, 330

Some Mammoth Specimens,
VII, 334

Meats of Selected Almonds,
VII, 338

Almonds Grown in Peaches,
VII, 342

AMARYLLIS

The New Amaryllis and Its

Parents, I, 214
Giant Amaryllis, VI, 252
A Double Amaryllis, VI, 264
A Burbank Amaryllis, VI,
268

APPLE

An Apple Graft One Year

Old, III, Frontispiece
A Beautiful Seedling Apple,

III, 210
The Crab Apple, III, 216
Three Seedling Apples, III,

220

APPhB— Continued

Nameless Beauties, III, 224
Getting On in the World,

III, 228
Half-Sweet, Half-Sour Ap-
ple, III, 232

APRICOT
Apricot and Seed, III, 264
The Apricot, III, 270

ARTICHOKE

Artichokes, V, 220

Half-Opened Artichoke Blos-
som, V, 224

A Wild Artichoke, V, 228

An Improved Artichoke, V,
234

BEAN

Showing Variation in Beans,

V, 146
A Stripling from the Tropics,
V, 152

BEET
The Familiar Beet, V, 118

BERRY

Thornless Blackberry Blos-
soms, I, 44

Some H y b* r i d Blackberry
Canes, I, 238

The Crystal White, So Called,
I, 330

Signs of Success — Larger
YeUow-White Berries, I,
338

White Blackberries as They
Grow, I, 346

379

380 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BERRY— Continued

Some Hybrid Blackberry
Canes, I, 238

Some Stems of Blackberry-
Raspberry Hybrids, II, 218

Raspberry Bush After Polli-
nation, II, 264

Thornless Blackberry and the
Recreant Seedling, IV, 212

One of the New Thornless
Blackberry Clusters, IV,
220

The Familiar Blackcap Rasp-
berry, IV, 236

The Primus Berry, IV, 242

The Phenomenal Berry, IV, 250

An Interesting Hybrid, IV,
256

A Sample Seedling Straw-
berry, IV, 264

An All-Summer Bearer, IV,
270

Everbearing Strawberries, IV,
274

Another Perpetual Variety,
IV, 278

Yet Another Hybrid Variety,
IV, 282

Sunberries, IV, 290

Leaf Variations in Hybrid
Blackberries, IV, 306

Hawaiian Raspberries, IV,
316

The Buffalo Berry, IV, 322

Interesting Hybrid Berries,

IV, 330

A Near View of Two Boxes

of Berry Seedlings, IV, 342
The Elaeagnus or G o u m i

Berrj-, IV, 380
A Burbank Strawberry, V,

Frontispiece
Fruit of a Chilean Myrtle, V,

28
A Cluster of the New White

Elderberries, V, 50
Color Variations in the Canes

of the Hybrid Blackberries,

V, 56

BLACKBERRY

Thornless Blackberry Blos-
soms, I, 44

Some Hybrid Blackberry
Canes, I, 238

The Crystal White, So CaUed,
I, 330

Signs of Success, Larger
Yellow-White Berries, I,
338

White Blackberries as They
Grow, I, 346

Some Stems of Blackberry-
Raspberry Hybrids, II, 2*18

Thornless Blackberry and the
Recreant Seedling, IV, 212

One of the New Thornless
Blackberry Clusters, IV,
220

An Interesting Hybrid, IV,
256

Leaf Variations in a Hybrid,

IV, 306

Color Variations in tlie Canes
of the Hybrid Blackberries,

V, 56

The Stem Finally Selected,
V, 62

BONFIRE
A Burbank Bonfire, I, 180

BOTTLE-BRUSH
The Bottle-Brush Bush, VII,
298

BOX ELDER

The Variegated Negundo,

VII, 232

The Variegated Box Elder,

VIII, 138

BUFFALO BERRY
The Buffalo Berry, IV, 322

BURBANK, LUTHER
A Recent Portrait, I, Fron-
tispiece
Luther Burbank's Birthplace,
VIII, 202

INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS 381

BURBANK, LUTHER— Cow-

tinued
The Old Homestead as It

Now Appears, VIH, 212
Luther Burbaiik, at the Age

of Twenty-Five, VHI, 246
My First Advertisement,

VHI, 252
Back View of My Home

Showing Vines, VIII, 354

BURBANK, MRS. LUTHER
Mrs. Luther Burbank, VIII,

224

BURBANK, OLIVE ROSS
Olive Ross Burbank, Luther
Burbank's Mother, VIII,
184

CACTUS

Armored Against Its Ene-
mies, I, 70
Improved and Wild Cacti

Still Bear Leaves, I, 76
Contrasting Types of Cactus,

I, 80
Vestigial Leaves, I, 86
A Beautiful Flowering Cac-
tus, I, 90
Cross Section of a Cactus

Blossom, II, 260
Reselecting Selected Cactus

Seedlings, III, 42
A Cactus Fruit that Imitates

the Pear, V, 10
Cactus Fruit on the Slab, V,

14
A Good Specimen, V, 18
A Well-Proportioned Fruit,

V, 20
The Candle Cactus, VI, 98
The Gravity Cactus, VI, 104
The Prolific Cactus, VI, 110
Young Royal Cactus Plants,

VL 116
The Hemet Cactus, VI, 122
The Melrose Cactus, VI, 128
Spineless Cactus, Showing Six
Months' Growth, VI, 134

CACTUS— Continued
A Fruit Colony, VI, 140
Cactus Blossoms, VI, 148
Cactus Candy, VI, 156
A Cactus-Slab Fan, VI, 164

CALIFORNIA POPPY

California Poppy, I, 176

The California Poppy Turned
Crimson, I, 184

The California Poppy Turn-
ing White, I, 188

White and Crimson Side by
Side, I, 294

CALLA

The Fragrant Calla, II, Fron-
tispiece

The Spadix of One of the
Calla LiUes, II, 12

Hybrid Callas, II, 18

Giant and Dwarf Callas, VII,
48

The Lemon Giant Calla, VII,
52

CAMASSIAS

A Bed of Selected Crossbred

Camassias, V, 264
A Wide Range of Variation,

V, 270
Camassia Blossoms, V, 274
The Wild Camassia, V, 280

CANNA

A Seedling Canna, VII, 36
Another Seedling Canna, VII,
42

CARRION LILY
Arum Dracunculus — A Fly-
Loving Flower, I, 130

CEREUS
A Selected Night - Blooming
Cereus, VII, 812

CHERRY
A Large, Late-Bearing Seed-
ling Cherry, I, 50

882 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CWERRY— Continued

More than Five Hundred
Kinds on One Tree, I, 218

Two Seedling Types of Cher-
ries, I, 222

Some of the 400 Come to
Judgment, I, 226

The Giant Cheny, II, IIG

The Abundance Cherry, II,
128

Nameless Seedlings, III, 128

Some Curious Short-Stemmed
Hybrids, III, 138

Improved Holly Cherry, III,
144

The HoUy Cherry, III, 148

CHESTNUT
A Dwarf Chestnut Tree,

VIII, 10
A Basket of Chestnuts, VIII,

16
Six-Months-Old Chestnut Tree

in Bearing, VIII, 54
Yearling Chestnut Tree in

Bearing, VIII, 58
A Six-Months-Old Chestnut

Tree, VIII, 62
Bur and Catkin, VIII, 66
WeU Protected, VIII, 70
Chestnuts in the Bur, VIII,

74
Chinquapins and Chestnuts,

VIII, 92

CHINQUAPIN
Chinquapins and Chestnuts,

VIII, 92
The California Chinquapin as

an Ornamental Tree, VIII,

130

COCONUT
The Coconut's Three Eyes, I,
138

CONIFERS

A Hybrid Evergreen, II, 346
A Young Sequoia Gigantea,
VIII, 152

CONIFERS— CoTitinwei

The Largest Tree in the

World, VIII, i58
Yellow Pine, VIII, 162

CORN

Ordinary Field Com and Its

Tiny Parent, I, 62
An Experiment in Corn, I, 66
Some Forms of Corn, I, 162
Variation in Corn Seed, 1, 1G6
Rainbow Corn, I, 170
Ten Corn Variations, II, 202
Corn Teosinte Hjbrids, Sev-
enteen Feet High, II, 206
Corn Self - Pollinated and
Crossed with Teosinte, II,
210
A Freak Ear of Corn, V, 314
Sections of Rainbow Corn

Leaves, V, 322
Three Fine Types of Com,
V, 330

COTTON
Cotton Flower and Seed
Head, VI, 58

COWPEA
Co\vpeas Under Cultivation,

V, 134

CRINUM

One of the New Crinums, VI,

272
Seed Pods of the Crinum, VI,

276
A Hybrid Crinum, VII, 196

DAHLIA

A Primitive Type of Dahlia,

VI, 340

A Common Type of the Mod-
em Dahlia, VI, 348

DAISY

The Shasta Daisy, I, 302
The Shasta Daisy and Two of

Its Relatives, I, 308
Shasta Daisies — Curious Tu-
bular Ray Flowers, I, 314

INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS 383

DAISY— Continued
A Beautiful Laciniated Type,

I, 320
A Semidouble Daisy, VI, 310
Laciniated Petals, VI, 316
A Bouquet of Shastas, VI, 322

DEVIL'S-CLAW
Devil's-Claw— I, I, 140
Devil's-Claw— II, I, 142
Devil's-Claw— III, I, 144

DIERAMA

Dierama Pulcherrima, VII, 280

ELDERBERRY

A Cluster of the New White
Elderberries, V, 50

ELM

The Hybrid Elm, VIII, 170

FLAX

The Flax Plant, VI, 50

fRITILLARIA

A Fritillaria, VII, 274

GARDENING

Compost for Young Plant
Food, V, 102

Artificial Rain in Mr. Bur-
bank's Garden, VI, Frontis-
piece

A Simple but Important
Equipment, VIII, 274

Soil- Stirring Implements,
VIII, 280

Seeds in the Greenhouse,
VIII, 286

Cleaning Seeds, VIII, 292

A Collection of Sieves, VIII,
298

Marking Rows for Planting,
VIII, 304

An Effective Implement,
VIII, 318

GERANIUM
The Geranium Ready to Re-
ceive Pollen, I, 120

GERANIUM— Contimied
Variation in Color as Well as
in Form, VI, 200

GLADIOLUS

Sample of an Improved Gladi-
olus, I, 200

A White Gladiolus, VI, 328

Large Size and Compact
Growth, VII, Frontispiece

A New Giant Gladiolus, VII,
12

One of Ten Thousand Vari-
ations, VII, 18

An Unusual Color in the
Gladiolus, VII, 24

A Sample Gandavensis Prim-
ulinus Hj^brid, VII, 30

GOUMI BERRY

The Elsagnus or G o u m i
Berry, IV, 380

GOURDS

Some Experimental Gourds,

V, 108
Some Gourds from Australia,

V, 114

GRAFTS

More than Five Hundred

Kinds on One Tree, I, 218
A Grafted Wahiut Tree, II,

84
Complete Grafting Outfit, II,

300
Cutting Stock for Whip

Graft, II, 310
A Side Graft in Position, II,

314
Crown or Bark Graft, II, 320
Cutting the Bark to Receive

a Bud, II, 324
The Bud Graft Completed, II,

328
An Apple Graft One Year

Old, III, Frontispiece
An Early Diagram of Tree

Grafts, III, 36
Grafting Record, III, 46

384 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

GRAPE

A Heavy-Bearing Seedling, I,

254
A Pollen-Bearing Grapevine,

II, 344
Seedless Grapes, III, 12
Grapes of the Concord Type,

IV, 352
Seedling Syrians, IV, 356
A Mammoth Cluster, IV, 360
Unproductive but Meritori-
ous, IV, 364
Small Cluster of a Fine Seed-
ling, IV, 368

GRASS

Pampas Grass, VI, 180

GROWTH

Where the Tree is Alive, V,
94

GUAVA

Fruit of the Guava, III, 290

HJEMANTHUS
Haemanthus Blossoms, VI, 256

HICKORY

Hickory Nuts, VIII, 80

HOPS
A Hop-Field Vista, VI, 84

IRIS

A Spectacular Iris, VII, 80
A Luxurious Type, VII, 90
Selected Chilean Iris, VII, 102
A Japanese Iris, VII, 112
Seedling Japanese Iris, VII,
124

JUDAS TREE
The Judas Tree or Red-Bud,
VIII, 166

I>ARKSPUR

Improved Hybrid Larkspur,

VII, 214
More Hybrid Larkspurs, VII,
218

I.ARKSPVR— Continued

Larkspurs with Wonder !u\

Coloring, VII, 286
A Beautiful Hybrid Lark-
spur, VII, 292

LEAVES

Vestigial Leaves, I, 81
Variation in Hybrid Walnut

Leaves, II, 76'
Leaf Variations in a Hybrid,

IV, 306

Illustrating Leaf Structure,

V, 88

LEMON

A Cross of Orange and

Lemon, I, 40
Sweet Lemons, III, 300

LILY

Arum Dracunculus — A Fly-
Loving Flower, I, 130

Seedlings of the Belladonna
Lily, VI, 260

The Siberian Lily, VII, 58

LOQUAT
A Bunch of the Common

Loquats, III, 274
Improved Loquats, III, 278
Improved Loquats, III, 282

MAPLE
The Variegated Negundo,

VII, 232

The Variegated Box Elder,

VIII, 138

MARIGOLD

Educating the Calendula,
VII, 222

A Calendula of Real Dis-
tinction, VII, 226

MISTLETOE
A Beautiful Thief, V, 82

MOUNTAIN ASH

Fruit of One of My Greatly
Improved Varieties o f
Mountain Ash, V, 36

INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS 385

MOUNTAIN ASH— Continued
The Result of Education, V,
42

MYRTLE
Fruit of a Chilean Myrtle, V,

28

NECTARINE
The Nectarine, III, 184
A New Seedling Nectarine,
III, 194

NUT^^EG
The Wild Nutmeg, VIII, 104

NUTS

Variations in Walnuts, I, 248
The Coconut's Three Eyes, I,

138
A Sixteen- Year-Old Royal

Walnut, II, 62
Wood of the Royal Walnut,

II, 6G
Paradox Walnut Wood Two

Inches in Diameter Each

Year, II, 70
Variation in Hybrid Walnut

Leaves, II, 76
Hybrid Walnuts, II, 80
a" Grafted Walnut Tree, IL

84
Santa Rosa Nut Meats, VIII,

Frontispiece,
A Dwarf Chestnut Tree,

VIII, 10
A Basket of Chestnuts, VIII,

16
The Paper Shell on the Tree,

VIII, 30
Santa Rosa Walnuts, VIIT, 36
Parents and Offspring, VIII,

44
Six-Months-Old Chestnut

Tree in Bearing, VIII, 54
Yearling Chestnut Tree in

Bearing, VIII, 58
A Six-Months-Old Chestnut

Tree, VIIT, 62
Bur and Catkin, VIII, 66

NUTS— Continued
Well Protected, VIII, 70
Chestnuts in the Bur, VIII,

74
Hickory Nuts, VIII, 80
A Pecan Tree, VIII, 84
A Variety of Tropical Nuts,

VIII, 88
Chinquapins and Chestnuts,

VIII, 92
Hybrids and Parents, VIII,

324

OATS
A Sheaf of Oats, VI, 18

OLIVE

Olive Trees, VIII, 116

ORANGE

A Cross of Orange and
Lemon, I, 40

PARSNIP

Parsnips, V, 126

PASSION FLOWER

Flower and Fruit on the
Same Plant, V, 254

PEA

Perennial Peas, VI, 210

PEACH

A Patrician, III, 158

The Leader Peach, III, 188

The Exquisite Peach, III, 200

PEAR

One of the Oriental Pears,

II, 194

American Pears with Blended

Heredities, II, 198
Getting Color into the Pear,

III, 92

A Patrician, III, 158
Dissimilar Twins, III, 168
An Ideal Pear, III, 176

PECAN
A Pecan Tree, VIII, 84

M-Bur.

Vol 8

386 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PEPPER

A Basket of BurVank Pep-
pers, V, 210
Burbank Peppers, V, 214

PINE

Yellow Pine, VIII, 162

PINK

A Bed of Chinese Pinks, I,
196

PITCHER PLANT
This Plant Eats and Digests
Insects, I, 104>

PLUM

A New Plum and Its Wild

Ancestor, I, 108
The Plum's Perishable Bloom,

I, 264

A Typical Stoneless Plum, II,

38
Double Seeds Sometimes

Take the Place of a Stone,

II, 44

The Original and the Fin-
ished Product, II, 56
A Basket of Plums, III, 24
The Wickson Plum, III, 78
Santa Rosa Plum, III, 84
Shiro Plums, III, 116
A Curious Fruit, III, 120
The Climax Plum, III, 316
Beauty Plun> Fruits, III,

320
The Blood Plum Satsuma,

III, 324

Type of Selected Blood Phun

Seedling, III, 328
A Kelsey-Satsxmia Hybrid,

III, 332
Nine Varieties of Crossbred

Plums, III, 336
A Kelsey-Burbank Hybrid,

III, 344
Jordan Plum, HI, 348
The Fruit of the Burbank

Plum, IV, Frontispiece
The Late Shipper, IV, 14

PLIJM—Contimied

Prune D'Agen Fruit, IV, 28
Purple-Leafed Plum with

Fruit, IV, 118
Globe Plum Fruits, IV, 128
Firm Sweet Plum Fruits, IV,

134
The Apple Plum, IV, 140
Another View of the Apple

Plum, IV, 148
A Seedling Crimson-Leafed

Plum, IV, 156
An Example of Uniform

Ripening, IV, 164
A Good Root System, IV,

174

PLUMCOT
One of the Plumcots, IV, 60
A Superior Plumcot, IV, 68
Plumlike Phuncot, IV, 104
The Odd Plumcot, IV, 182
Cherry Plumcot, IV, 186
Sweet Plumcot, IV, 190
One of the New Plumcots,

IV, 194
Cluster of Apex Plumcots,

IV, 198
Another Plumcot, IV, 202
The Burbank Plumcot, IV,

206

POLLINATION

An Experiment in Corn, I, 66

The Geranium Ready to Re-
ceive Pollen, I, 120

A Pollen-Laden Bee, I, 124

Arum Dracunculus — A Fly-
Loving Flower, I, 130

The Snowball— Cultivated and
Wild, I, 152

Complete Kit of PoUenizing
Tools, II, 188

Pollen-Bearing Pumpkin
Blossom, II, 236

Seed-Bearing Pumpkin Blos-
som, II, 240

A Pollen-Bearing Grapevine,
II, 244

INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS 387

POLLINATION— Continued

Sti'awuerry Blossom, II, 250

The Stigmatic Surface of a

Poppy Much Enlarged, II,

254,

Cross Section of a Cactus

Blossom, II, 260
Raspberry Bush after Pol-
lination, II, 364

POMEGRANATES
Seedling Pomegranate Fruits,
III, 308

POPPY
A Shirley Poppy — Showing

Reproductive Organs, II,

230
The Stigmatic Surface of a

Poppy Much Enlarged, II,

254
A New Shirley Poppy, VI, 282
Another New Shirley Poppy,

VI, 288
Another New Poppy, VI, 294
A Hybrid Poppy, VI, 298
The Burbank Art Poppies,

VI, 302

A Hybrid Everbiooming

Poppy, VII, 202
Still Another Hybrid Poppy,

VII, 206

POTATO

The Burbank Potato, I, 114

Potato Seed Balls, II, 168

Potatoes with a Strange His-
tory, V, 166

Wild High Andes Potatoes,
V, 288

Some Selected Seedlings, V,
294

A Fine, New Early Potato,
V, 300

My First Advertisement,

VIII, 252

PRIMROSE

A New Evening Primrose —
The America, VH, 134

PRUNE
The Sugar Prune and Its

Parents, II, 140
A Luscious Fruit, II, 160
Prune D'Agen Fruit, IV, 28
The Sugar Prune, IV, 32
The Splendor Prune, IV, 36
Prune Drying in California,

IV, 40
The Standard Prune, IV, 44
The Conquest Prune, IV, 48

PUMPKIN

Pollen-Bearing Pumpkin
Blossom, II, 236

Seed-Bearing Pumpkin Blos-
som, II, 240

QUINCE

Van Deman Quince, III, 238
Pineapple Quince, III, 244
The Medlar — A Cousin of the
Quince, III, 252

RADISH
Another Old Friend, V, 122

RASPBERRY

Leaves of Strawberry-Rasp-
berry Hybrids, II, 174

Some Stems of Blackberry-
Raspberry Hybrids, II, 218

Raspberry Bush after Pol-
lination, II, 264

The Familiar Blackcap Rasp-
berry, IV, 236

An Interesting Hybrid, IV,
256

Hawaiian Raspberries, IV,
316

RECORDS

An Early Diagram of Tree

Grafts, III, 36
Grafting Record, III, 46
Ripening Record, III, 60
Permanent Labels, VIII, 312

RED-BUD
The Judas Tree or Red-Bud,
VIII, 166

388 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

RHUBARB

A Typical Plant, II, 92
Ready for Shipment, II,
106

ROOT

A Good Root System, IV,
174

ROSE
At the Door, I, 208
Rose Cuttings — Developed by

Selective Breeding, III, 04
The Burbank Rose, VI, 228
A New Yellow Rambler, VI,

232
Roses at Sebastopol, VI,

236
Glimpse in the Proving

Ground, VI, 240
A Mammoth Bouquet, VI,

244
The Corona Rose, VI, 248
Unnamed Beauties, VIII,

330

SANTA ROSA

View in the Santa Rosa Gar-
dens, VIII, 258

Midsummer at Santa Rosa,
VIII, 342

Back View of My Home
Showing Vines, VIII, 354

Tropical Luxuriance, VIII,
362

SEBASTOPOL

Unnamed Beauties, VIII, 330

SEEDLINGS

A Large, Late-Bearing Red
Seedling Cherry, I, 50

Two Seedling Types of Cher-
ries, I, 222

A Heavy-Bearing Seedling, I,
254

"Flat" with Layer of Gravel,
II, 270

"Flat" Partly Filled with
Prepared Compost, II, 274

SEEDLl'SGS— Continued
A Cold Frame, II, 282
Protecting Seedlings from the

Birds, II, 290
Young Plants Awaiting Selec-
tion, II, 294
Reselecting Selected Cactus

Seedlings, III, 42
A Beautiful Seedling Apple,

III, 210

Three Seedling Apples, III,

220
Interesting Hybrid Berries,

IV, 330

A Near View of Two Boxes
of Berry Seedlings, IV,
342

Baby Plants, V, 74

Compost for Young Plant
Food, V, 102

Transplanting Selected Seed-
lings, V, 172

A Striking Contrast in Seed-
lings, VIII, 370

SEEDS

The Devil's-Claw— I, I, 140
The Devil's-Claw— II, I, 142
The Deviis-Claw— III, I, 144
Variation in Corn Seed, I,

166
Seeds in the Greenhouse,

VIII, 286
Cleaning Seeds, VIII, 292
Tigridia Seeds at Wholesale,

VIII, 336

SEQUOIA

A Young Sequoia Gigantea,

VIIL 152
The Largest Tree in the

World, VIII, 158

SHIPMENT

Ready for Shipment, II,
338

SNOWBALL

The Snowball — Cultivated and
Wild, I, 152

INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS 389

SPANISH BROOM
Spanish Broom, VII, 268

STAR

Star— Chilean Wild Flower,
I, 192

STAR FLOWER
Australian Star Flower, VII,

188
A Plant of Australian Star

Flower, VII, 192

STRAWBERRY

Strawberries Showing Vari-
ation, II, 28

Leaves of Strawberry-Rasp-
berry Hybrids, II, 174

Strawbeny Blossom (En-
larged), II, 250

A Sample Seedling Straw-
berry, IV, 264

An All-Summer Bearer, IV,
270

Everbearing Strawberries, IV,
274

Another Perpetual Variety,
IV, 278

Yet Another Hybrid Variety,
IV, 282

A Burbank Strawberry, V,
Frontisi)iece

STRAWBERRY TREE
The Fruit of the Strawberry
Tree, V, 32

SUGAR

Sugar Cane Tassels, VI, 70
Varieties of Sorghum, VI, 78
Sugar Beets at the Factory,

VI, 90
Cactus Candy, VI, 156

SUNBERRY

Sunberries, IV, 290

SUNFLOWER

Sample Hybrid Sunflower,
VL 22 ■

TECOMA

Flowers of the Tecoma, VII,

258

TEOSINTE

Ordinary Field Corn and Its
Tiny Parent, I, 62

TIGRIDIA

Hybrid Tigridias, VII, 144
Another Hybrid Tigridia,

VII, 148

Seedling Tigridias, VII, 152
A Blue Tigridia, VII, 158
Tigridia Seeds at Wholesale,

VIII, 336

TOMATO

Fruits of a Tomato Hybrid,
V, 160

TRITOMA

A YeUow Tritoma or "Red-
Hot Poker," VI, 218

VERBENA

Burbank Verbenas, VII, 166
More Burbank Hybrid Ver-
benas, VII, 170
One of the Fragrant Ones,
VII, 174

WALNUT

Variations in Walnuts, I,

248
A Sixteen- Year-Old Royal

Walnut, II, 62
Wood of the Royal Walnut,

II, 66
Paradox Walnut Wood Two

Inches in Diameter Each

Year, II, 70
Variation in Hybrid Walnut

Leaves, II, 76
Hybrid Walnuts, II, 80
A Grafted Walnut Tree, II,

84
Hybrid Walnuts, VII, 358
The Royal Walnut, VII,

372

390 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

WALNUT— Continued
Santa Rosa Nut Meats, VIII,

Frontispiece
The Paper Shell on the Tree,

VIII, 30
Santa Rosa Walnuts, VIII,

36
Parents and OflFsprmg, VIII,

44
Hybrids and Parents, VIII,

824

WATSONIAS
Some of My New Seedling
Watsonias, VII, 66

WHEAT

Wheat Germinating on Ice,
V, 344

A Glimpse at My "NMieat Ex-
periments, V, 848

Results of Wheat Experi-
ments, VI, 14

INDEX

Abies, VIII, 140, 161, 164
Abundance plum, III, UT, 339;
renamed, IV, 166

Acacia, I, 100; VIII, 171
Achieving the Impossible —
The Plumcot, IV, 181-207

Acorn squash, V, 113

Acquired traits, transmission
of, VII, 364-368

Adaptation, of plants, I, 46;
struggle to secure, I, 136;
the forward march of, I, 117-
17S ; of pears, I, 160 ; of arti-
chokes, I, 167; of celery, I,
167; of lettuce, I, 167; of
oranges, I, 167

Aerial potatoes, V, 180-183

Affinities, plant, II, 213-233;
founded on cousinship, II,
220-228

African daisy, orange, a sun-
loving flower, I, 182; history
of, I, 210; evolution of, inter-
rupted, I, 211; characteristics
of, VI, 819 ; variation in color
of, VI, 327-331

Agrippina rose, VI, 238

Aid from nature, IV, 82-85

Air, how plants use, V, 79-83;
necessary to plant growth,
VII, 375; must circulate
among roots, VII, ^3 ; in the
soU, VII, 309

Air drainage, of trees. III, 121

Alaskan strawberries, IV, 279

Alder, VIII, 171

Alexander apple, seedlings
from, Ul, 221

891

Alfalfa, finds in man a friend,!,
151 ; characteristics, VI, 35-37

Algae family, shows great adapt-
ability, I, 85

Alkali bath, IV, 35, 38-39

Alkaloids, from trees, VIII,
142

Alliance, between insect and
flower, II, 237

Allied species, protoplasm of,
II, 325

Allium, varieties of, V, 195-197

Almond akd Its Impeovement,
VII, 323-346

Almond, II, 45; III, 83, 205;
IV, 67; VII, 323-346, 331-
341; VIII, 18-19, 257-259

Almond-nectarine, VII, 333

Almond orchards, cross-fertili-
zation necessary, VII, 343

Almond-peach hybrids, VII,
335-341

Almond-plum hybrid, VII, 823,
328-329

Aloes, I, 85

Aloysia citriodora, VII, 173

Alstrcemena, experimenting
with, V, 278, 279

Amaranthus, as a weed, VII,
294

Amaryllis, I, 234; V, 278; VI,
251-278; VII, 315; VIII, 307

Amaryllis and Jacobean lily, '
hybrids from, VI, 278

Amber sugar canes, related to
Orange sugar canes, VI, 81

America, the melting pot of na-
tions, VUI, 872-374

392

INDEX

Amoeba, indefinite in form and

structure, I, 51
Ampelopsis, hardy vine, VII,

Analysis of soils, often valu-
able, VII, 313

Ancestral strains, diversity of,
III, 34T; of immigrants, VIII,
368

Ancon ram, Darwin on, II, 22

Anemophilous plants, II, 245

Angers quince. III, 23G

Animal cells, action of proto-
plasm of, V, 84

Animal world, I, 235; evidence
from the, II, 227-231; de-
pendent on vegetables, V, 86

Animals, offspring of, II, 123

Animate and inanimate forms
of life, I, 54

Anthers, II, 349

Antirrhinum, II, 349

Antiseptic surgery in the
orchard. III, 172-174

Apex plumcot, final selection
of, IV, 200-203

Aphides, destroy stoneless
seeds, II, 53

Aphis, woolly, orchard pest,
III, 225; Northern Spy im-
mune, III, 226

Apple, a Fuuit Stilt, Capable
OF Further Imphovejient,

III, 207-234

Apple, Baldwin, II, 58; hybrid-
ized, II, 178-179; develop-
ing a new variety of. III, 16;
color, how produced. III, 93;
migration of. III, 156; can
be grafted on pear stock. III,
178; improvement of. III,
207-234; result of hybridiz-
ing dewberry with, V, 64-66

Apple orchards, injured by
woolly aphis. III, 225

Apples, pears, and quinces, pos-
sibilities in crossing. III, 234

Apple plum. III, 94; III, 338;

IV, 189

Apple seeds, method of plant-
ing, III, 222

Apple trees, grafts cut, I, 149;
find in man a friend, I, 151 ;
pruning of. III, 80; all
closely related. III, 86; de-
crease in production of. III,
101; low size, III, 118; adapt-
ability of. III, 154

Apricot and the Loquat, III,
261-285

Apricot, crossed with plum, I,
233; smooth, I, 262; Russian,

III, 277; and plum crossed,

IV, 183; bearing nuts, VII,
339

Apricot plum, Chinese, IV, 9
Aquilegia, honey of, I, 131; de-
scribed, VII, 125-130
Araucaria, adaptability to en-
vironment, I, 87
Arctium, burdock, VII, 285
Arderne, H. W., discovers white

Watsonifi, VII, 67, 107
Aroma and taste, IV, 110
Artichoke, adaptability of, I,
167; development of, V, 219-
227
Artichokes axd Other Garden

Specialties, V, 217-238
Artificial pollination, II, 117
Artificial selection, II, 21
Arum, color and scent of, I,
126; pollination by flies, I,
127; variation of, I, 135-136
A s c 1 e p i a , rubber-producing

plants, VIII, 135
Ash, possibilities of, VIII, 171
Asiatic daisy, I, 305
Asiatic Elaeagnus, IV, 384
Asiatic plum, IV, 120
Asparagus, selling qualities, I,

265; valuable food, V, 248
Asters, possibilities of, VII, 140
Atmosphere, new, stimulative,

II, 105
Atom, characteristics of, IV,
150-160; Prof. Rutherford on,
IV, 154-155; Lord Kelvin on.

INDEX

393

IV, 155; Sir J. J. Thomson

on, IV, 155; Becquerel on,

IV, 157
Australian star flower, VII,

186-190
Australia, plants from. III, 227,

289, 310; VII, 182, 186 189;

VIII, 96

Bacilli, insects spread. III,

171-173
Bacillus amylovorus, pear

blight due to. III, 170; re-
lated to bacilli that cause

human maladies, III, 170
Bacterial diseases of plants,

VII, 317
Bailey, Prof. L. H., fails to

hybridize squashes, V, 112
Baldwin, apple, all trees parts

of original ti'ee. III, 211
Balloon-flower, VII, 95 - 103,

108-116
Balsam fir, VIII, 140
Baltimore Belle rose, VI, 238
Banana, development of. III,

97
Banana melon, a hybrid, V,

103-10-1
Banksia rose, VI, 238, 243
Barberry, blossom of, I, 131;

(Berberis vulgaris), II, 252;

acrid, is changing, IV, 373-

384
Bark grafting and inarching,

II, 318-319
Barley, grown from seed. III,

9; fermentation of, V, 342
Barnyard manure, effect of, on

soil, VII, 319
Barr, Peter, bulb expert, I,

165; on personality stamped

on flowers, VII, 229
Bartlett pear, luscious fruit of,

I, 157; adapted to Califor-

nian soil and climate. III,

162; qualities of III, 166, 170,

231
Bateson peas, II, 32-33

Beach plum, description of, IV,
121; ennoblement of the,
123-130; size increased by
hybridization, VI, 257
Bean, III, 9; V, 95, 145-156
Bear, history of a cub, I, 95;
hereditary instincts, I, 95-96
Bearing of This Work on

Human Life, 349-378
Beauty plum. III, 338; IV, 21
Becquerel, on atom, IV, 157;

finds radio activity, V, 159
Beech, hardiness of, VIII, 165
Beecher, Henry Ward, on cook-
ing the quince. III, 235
Bees, orchid poUenized by,
1, 128-129 ; poUenize milkweed,
I, 129; p ol 1 e nize cherry
blossoms, I, 145; pollenize
snowball, I, 151; pollenize
daisy, I, 186; help produce
new daisy, I, 190; cause vari-
ation, I, l'J5; do not mix
pollen, I, 205; attracted by
flowers, I, 206 ; produce
honey of different flavors, I,
206; taste like human be-
ings, II, 7; pollenize cher-
ries, II, 112; importance
of, II, 111-115; have eye
for color, II, 343; Dr. Turner
on, II, 347; aiding the, II,
348-352; fertilize columbines,
VII, 129
Belladonna, IV, 293-295
Berckman plum. III, 339
Bermuda onions, V, 193
Berries, hybrid, II, 170-178; of
importance, IV, 209-348; im-
proved varieties of, V, 26-
43; announcement of new va-
rieties, VIII, 297
Beurre Clairgeau pear. III, 93
Bidens, VII, 285
Biffin, Prof., on wheat, II, 208-
212, 277; experiments in rust
eradication, V, 350-352; ex-
periments, wheat, VI, 16-20
Bignonia, VII, 257

394

INDEX

Biologj', modem, V, 5T; effect
of Darwinian theory, VIII,
327

Birch, hardiness of, VIII,
165

Bird cherry, hardy, III, 145

Birds, orchid pollenized by
small, I, 139; heredity of, II,
99-100; migratory, II, 100

Birkeland, converts atmospheric
nitrogen into nitric acid,
VI, 45

Bittersweet, poisonous, I, 247

Black bean, production of, V,
147; color of second gen-
eration, V, 148; variations in
offspring of, V, 148; vines of,
148; vines of second genera-
tion of, V, 148-149

Blackberry, needs no thorns, I,
149; new white, I, 325-352;
first truly white, I, 331;
Primus, 11, 29; thornless, II,
87; white, II, 122; hybrid, II,
205; Lawton, II, 207; normal,
crossed with white black-
berries, III, 25; thornless,
IV, 209-232; evergreen, IV,
327-839; color factors for
blacliness in, V, 57; color fac-
tors for whiteness in, V, 57;
experiments with hybrids of,
VIII, 344-346

Blackcap berry, IV, 315-317

Black color, predominant in
heredity, I, 347

Black dahlia, VI, 846; attempts
to hybridize with dahlia, VI,
347-349

Black guinea pig, predominance
of black color in, VI, 299

Black mustard, prized for culi-
nary purposes, V, 207

Black salsify, V, 127

Black walnut, produces cabinet
wood, II, 68; where grown,
VIII, 25

Blood plum Satsiuna, III, 333-
340

Bloomeria amrea, grown exten-
sively, V, 278

Bluebell, VII, 130-131

Blueberry, IV, 837-341

Bluebird, II, 99

Blue poppy, experiments in
production of, VI, 280-292;
principlee of color transfor-
mation of, VI, 299; domi-
nant color factors in VI, 301-
305

Bodinghaus, M., produces new
hybrid gladiolus, VII, 11

Body plasm, segregation of
germ plasm and, V, 64; sep-
arated from germ plasm,
VII, 155-160; everywhere as-
sociated, VII, 366

Bolivian peastone peach, valu-
able for experiment, III, 204

Boll weevil, menaces cotton, VI,
60-61; Guatemala ant resists,
VI, 61 ; larva of, VI, 63

Bonfires, II, 278

Bon Silene rose, used in pro-
ducing Burbank rose, VI,
230; used in producing new
roses, VI, 238

Bordeaux mixture, disinfecting
seeds, II, 54-55; used to
destroy insects, III, 109-110

Borneo, plants from, VII, 181

Boston ivy, VII, 249

Boxes for seedlings, II, 283-286

Branches of trees, IV, 101-103

Brazil, navel orange from, III,
993-294; plants from. III,
310; VII, 225

Breeding, for particular traits,
II, 131-132, for varied quali-
ties, V, 335-337

Brevoorfia, V, 277

Bridal rose, double - flowering
plant, V, 31-33

Broccoli, consists of thickened
flower parts, V, 117

Brodi(Ba, V, 273-277

Brome grasses, VI, 179-184

Broom corn, VI, 79-81

INDEX

395

Bronco (jumping bean), repro-
duction by insect, I, 141

Brunsmgia, used in producing
new amaryllis, VI, 261

Brussels sprouts, thickened
buds, V, 117-119

Bryant, Walter, sends seed of
ground cherry, V, 251

Bud, mystery of the, IV, 142-
145

Bud, of plum tree, IV, 154-158;
structure of, IV, 158-160

Budding, multiplication by, II,
322-326; methods of, II, 323;
of orange. III, 294-295

Budding and grafting, applied
to apples, III, 209-211

Buds, manner of growth, IV,
154

Bud sport, on a peach tree. III,
190

Buffalo berry, IV, 883-384

Bulb, edible, VII, 57; propaga-
tion by, VII, 150-154; de-
stroyed by insects, VII, 316

Bullace, French stoneless plums,
II, 43-47; used to develop
stoneless plum. III, 204; why
developed, IV, 83, 85, 93

Bunting, Isaac, ships Japanese
plums. III, 319-321

Burbank, Emma Louisa, VIII,
323

Burbank, Levi Sumner, VIII,
223

Burbank, Luther, birthplace of,
VIII, 175; birth of, VIII,
178; early love of flowers,
VIII, 178-179; childhood ex-
periments, VIII, 179; adven-
ture vnih a crow, VIII, 181 ;
brickyard on his father's
farm, VIII, 182; industries
at Lancaster home, VIII, 182;
pottery manufactory at his
childhood home, VIII, 182;
father of, VIII, 183; mother
of, VIII, 183; ancestors of,
VIII, 185-187; childhood at

Lancaster, Mass., VIII, 189;
love of flowers, VIII, 190-191;
character in childhood, VIII,
191-192; interest in chemistry
and mechanics, VIII, 191-193;
knowledge of plant and ani-
mal life, VIII, 192; early
education of, VIII, 192-194;
at Lancaster Academy, VIII,
194-195; with Ames Manu-
facturing Company, VIII,
195; studies human nature,
VIII, 196; begins plant ex-
periments, VIII, 197; begins
study of medicine, VIII, 197;
moves to Santa Rosa, VIII,
197; his father's death, VIII,
197; produces Burbank po-
tato, VIII, 197; brothers of,
in California, VIII, 198; early
trials in California, VIII,
200-203; sells nursery, VIII,
203; buys farm at Sebastopol,
VIII, 204; receives plants
from many lands, VIII, 205;
experiments with native
plants, VIII, 207; makes ar-
rangement with Carnegie
Institute, VIII, 209; ideals
of, VIII, 210-311; home life
of, VIII, 211; personality of,
VIII, 213-214 ; autobiography,
VIIL 217-308; marries
Elizabeth Waters, VIII, 222;
sister, VIII, 222; relatives
of, VIII, 223; heredity, VIII,
225; inspiration in love of
nature, VIII, 225; childhood
environment, VIII, 226-227;
life at Lancaster Academy,
VIII, 228; takes drawing les-
sons, VIII, 229; with Ames
Manufacturing Company,
VIII, 229; helps construct
tractor, VIII, 229; patronizes
public library, VIII, 230; on
New England Sabbath, VIII,
230-231 ; influenced by "Origin
of Species," VIII, 232-233;

896

INDEX

father of, VIII, 235; on his
father's farm, VIII, 235;
health of, VIII, 236-237; be-
gins study of medicine, VIII,
237; plans changed by father's
death, VIII, 237; influenced
by "Animals and Plants under
Domestication," VIII, 238;
might have been an inventor,
VIII, 239; hereditary gifts
of, VIII, 239; early experi-
ence at Lunenburg, Mass.,
VIII, 240; moves to Califor-
nia, VIII, 241; trip to Cali-
fornia, VIII, 244; brothers in
California, VIII, 244-245; in-
heritance from Puritan an-
cestors, VIII, 245; ten pota-
toes a valuable asset, VIII,
250; at Santa Rosa, VIII,
251; difficulties in beginning
in California, VIII, 253; works
at carpentry, VIII, 254; re-
suit of first year in Cali-
fornia, VIII, 254-255; fills
order for 20,000 prune trees,
VIII, 256; grafts 20,000
prunes on almond seedlings,
VIII, 260-261 ; begins new life
work, VIII, 2G4-268; collects
new material, VIII, 265; pur-
chases Sebastopol farm, VIII,
268-269 ; secures material from
Japan, VIII, 268; anticipa-
tions and results, VIII, 277-
279; materials for new work,
VIII, 279-282; materials re-
ceived from abroad, VIII,
282-284; receives aid from
many plant collectorSj VIII,
2S3; methods and purposes
of, VIII, 284; develops or-
chard fruits, VIII, 287; seeks
hardiness, VIII, 288; per-
sistence of, VIII, 288; seeks
practical results, VIII, 288-
289; proves thr-ory of natural
selection, VIII, -290 • sr-Jpnti-
fic results obtained, VIII, ;^91-

294; announces new develop-
ments, VIII, 295; ten years
of progress of, VIII, 306-
308

Burbank, Olive Ross, lover of
nature, VIII, 225-226

Burbank, Samuel Walton, VIII,
183

Burbank canna, VII, 37-41

Burbank catalogues, used for
textbooks, VIII, 306

Burbank Cherry, II, 111-132

Burbank cherry, II, 111-132;
III, 117

Burbank giant, winter rhubarb
crossed with, V, 240

Burbank plum, first introduced,
III, 380; importance of, as
California shipping plum, III,
331; trees resist cold, 111,333

BuKBANK Plums and How
They Were Produced, III,
341-352

Burbank jxttato, history of, I,
113-116; V, 285-287, 295-304;
VIII, 197

Burbank quince, seedling of
pineapple quince, III, 247

Burbank rose, VI, 225-234

Bur clover, characteristics of,
VI, 38-39

Burdock, improved, V, 236-238

Burroughs, John, on straw-
berry, IV, 281

Busli bean, V, 154-155

Bush scallop squash, V, 109-110

Butterfly, poUenizes cherry blos-
soms, I, 145; Prof. Loeb on,

II, 344-347

Butternut, VIII, 25, 43-45, 52

Cabbage, V, 116-120

Cabinet wood, II, 68

Cactus, I, 69-92, 94, 147-148;

III, 15; IV, 78; V, 7-21; VI,
95-170; VIII, 307

Cactus Pear, a Profitable

FRnx, V, 7-21
California black walnut, IT, 61

INDEX

397

California dewberry, II, 170;

VIII, 329
California lily, V, 279
California poppy, I, 243, 291-

293; III, 65-66; VI, 293-296
California walnut, II, 68, 78
California wild plum, IV, 121,

132-135
Calla, I, 172; II, 7-33; VII,

41-51
Calyx, shield about flower bud,

li, 257
Camassia, Will It Supplant

THE Potato? V, 261-283
Camassia, wild hyacinth, V, 261-

283
Cambium layer, II, 72, 309-311
Campanula family, VII, 115;

130-131
Canada balsam, VIII, 140
Canada squash, V, 110
Canadian leeks, V, 196
Canary pahn, VII, 244
Candleberry, VIII, 147-148
Canna, VII, 38-41
Canna and the Calla, VII,

33-61
Cantaloupe, V, 104-106
Cape raspberry, IV, 317-319
Capri fig. III, 307
Carbohydrates, V, 95; VI, 82-85
Carboniferous era, II, 242
Cardoon artichoke, V, 222-223
Carnation, I, 117-125; VI, 209;

VII, 173-178
Carnegie Institute, aids in Bur-
bank work, VIII, 209
Carrel, Dr., experiments of, II,

297-299; III, 326
Carrion beetle, II, 9
Carrion lily, I, 126
Carrot, V, 95, 99, 124-125; V,

219
Carum Gairdneri, V, 282-283
Carya, VIII, 81-82
Cassaba melon, V, 104-106
Castilleia, VII, 235
Castle, Prof. William E., I, 347;
II, 50-51, 123; III, 28

Catalina cherry. III, 146
Catalpa tree, VIII, 168-169
Cathay pear. III, 248
Cattle, compared with seed-
lings, III, 53-54
Cauliflower, V, 117-120
Cecille Bruner rose, VI, 238
Celery, I, 167, 172
Cell, development and sub-
stance of, I, 54-59; plant and
animal, V, 83-85
Cenchrus, sand bur, VII, 285
Chabot plum, III, 339
Chamgerops palm, VII, 244-

246
Champion quince. III, 236
Character, unit, II, 124-126;
selection for a single, III,
63-69; segregation of, V, 141-
142; dominant and recessive,
VI, 9-16
Cheat, a weed, VII, 289
Chemical constitution of spe-
cies, II, 225-227
Chemical processes, generate

heat, II, 10
Chemistry, of the soil, VII,

305-314
Chenango potato, V, 289
Cherokee rose, VI, 238
Cherry, I, 145-146, 177, 219-231;
II, 111-132, 193-201; III, 15,
81, 86-90, 123-151
Chestnut, Bearing Nuts at

Six Months, VIII, 51-76
Chestnut, IV, 67, 69-70; VIII,

7-9, 13-15, 51-76, 296-297
Chestnut blight, VIII, 63-67
Chestnut orchard, method of

planting, VIII, 63-71
Chestnut seedlings, VIII, 60-69
Chickasaw plum, crossed with

peach. III, 204
Chicle, gum from, VIII, 141
Chicories, I, 139
Childs, Mr. John Lewis, intro-
duces wineberry, V, 33
Chilean bellflower, VII, 260-
261

398

I]>fDEX

Chilean clover, hlstoiy of, I,

101; VI, 37-S8
Chilean cress, V, 208
Chilean leeks, V, 196
Chiloe squash, V, 115
Chinese bellflower, VII, 115
Chinese mustard, V, 306
Chinese plums, IV, 9
Chinese rose, VI, 24.5
Chinquapin, VIII, 56, 67
Chive, experimenting with, V,

191-195
Chloroform, effect of, on plants,

III 323
ChlorophyU, V, 99-91; VII, 82
Chromosomes, IV, 146-147, 152
Chr\-santhemum, I, 301-305; II,

258
Cinchona trees, produce quinine,

VIII, 143
Circulation, in tree. III, 174
Citranges, orange hybrids, III,

291
Citron, familiar citrus fruit,

III, 388
Citrus and Other Fncrrs from

THE Tropics, III, 287-311
Clarkia, color variations of,

VI, 325
Cleft graft, I, 293; II, 315
Clematis, VII, 251-256; VIII,

300-301
Climate, new, stimulative, II,
105; fruits originally from
warm countries. III, 310; for
plums, IV, 119-120; disease
and human tastes, V, 45-48
Clingstone, IV, 66-71
Cloth of Gold rose, VI, 238
Cloudberry, IV, 335-327
Clover, I,' 100-101; III, 108;

VI, 2M6
Cockleburs, VII, 285
Coconut, eves of. I, 136-137;

food value of, VIII, 12-13
Coconut geranium, VII, 182-183
Coconut squash, V, 110
Codling moth, III, 109-110
Coffee, VII, 43

Colby, Prof., compares pruneSj

IV, 65
Cold frames, II, 981-288
Colloids, I, 64
Color, II, 59; III, 118; VI,

197-224; VII, 25-33, 79-93,

121-135, 133, 175-177, 316,

296-300
Color factors, rivalry in, VI,

801
Colors, insects make, I, 183
Columbine, VII, 125-130
Combination plum, II, 134; IV,

117
Combinations, importance of

care in selection, I, 46; by

bees. III, 8;
Composite flowers, VII, 217-

223
Conifers, VIII, 139, 141, 157-

167
Conquest prune, II, 42; IV, 71-

73, 89-90
Continental daisy, I, 303
Cook, researches of, VI, 23, 61
Coquito rose, VI, 245
Cx)reopsis, VII, 131-132

COKK, THE KiN'G OF AmERICa's

Crops, V, 311-339

Corn, I, 133-135, 172; III, 67,
311-339; VIII, 307

Corn cockle, a weed, VII, 289

Cornucopia, II, 10

Corolla, II, 257

Corona plumcot, IV, 203-204

Correlation of parts, Cuvier
studies. III, 59

Correns, makes known Mendel,
V, 351

Corrosive sublimate, for dis-
infecting tree wounds, III,
172

Corsican pine, VIII, 139

Cos lettuce, V, 327-229

Cosmos, opportunity for ama-
teurs, VII, 221-223

Cotton, VI, 48-66

Cotton worm, VI, 60

Coulter, Professor, I, 319

INDEX

399

Cr&bapple, III, 91, 173
Crabapples, experiments with,

III, 329
Cranberry, IV, 131, 337-341
Crawford peach, III, 193-195,

201
Cretaceous age, II, 83-83
Crimson Rambler, VI, 338,

241
Crimson Winter rhubarb, I,

271; II, 89; V, 51
Crinum, VI, 261, 273-275; VII,

190-197
Crops, increased by rotation,

VII, 314-321; no short cuts
to profit, VII, 315; failure
often due to physical condi-
tion of soil, VII, 318

Crookes, on nitrogen, VI, 45
Crookneck squash, V, 109, 110
Cross breeding, II, 57; IV, 63,

195-196; VIII, 369
Crosses, distinguished from hy-
brids, I, 209
Cross-fertilization, I, 206; II,
9, 33-33, 221, 348-350; III,
190; IV, 117; VI, 230-233;

VIII, 337

Crossing, natural, I, 39; arti-
ficial, I, 39 ; object of, I, 43

Crozy canna, a parent of Tar-
rytown, VII, 34

Crozy, a hybrid, VII, 35

Cnicifers, V, 116-119

Crystal White blackberry, I,
325-326; IV, 268

Crystals, life exists in, 54-57

Cucumber, V, 99-104

Cultivation, VII, 283, 309-310

Culture, II, 326-330

Curl leaf, VII, 320

Currant, IV, 329-333

Cutworm, danger to cotton
seedling from, VI, 60

Cuvier, studies correlation of
parts, III, 59

Cydonia, III, 248-255

Cynogloesum, variation of color
of, VI, 326

Dahlia, VI, SS3-352; VII, 104

Daisy Which Rivals the
Chrtsanthemum, VI, 307-
331

Daisy, I, 182-195, 210-213, 299-
324; II, 131; III, 16-19; VI,
307-331

Damson plum, IV, 88

Dandelion, I, 139, 175; V, 230-
231; VII, 285

Darnel, a weed, VII, 289

Darwin, Charles, theory of, I,
337; on evolution, II, 19; on
Ancon ram, II, 22; on spon-
taneous variation. III, 342;
effect of teaching. III, 345;
quotes Dr. Herbert, VII, 8;
importance of work of, VII,
357-359; publishes "Origin of
Species," VIII, 232; publishes
"Animals and Plants Under
Domestication," VIII, 238;
theory of evolution, VIII,
320; arguments of, VIII, 326;
doctrine of unity of life
forces, VIII, 351-353

Darwin, Erasmus, teaches mu-
tability of species, VII, 8;
records dahlia experiments,
VII, 104-105

Darwin potato, II, 167; V, 305-
308

Darwinian heredity, VII, 354,
359-360, 382

Darwinian theory of evolution,
11,25

Darwinism on trial, VIII, 97,
329

Darwin's Hero morning glory,
VII, 103

Date palm, in California, VII,
238-239

Deciduous trees, VIII, 164-174

Delaware plum. III, 388; IV, 18

Department of Agriculture, ex-
periments of, VI, 43-44

Desigking a Strawberry to
Bear the Year ArottnDs IV,
261-286

400

INDEX

Devil's-claw, I, 141-145

Devil's shoestring, VII, 289
De Vries on work of Mendel, V,
351 ; experiments with prim-
rose, VII, 136-137; on Men-
del's work, VII, 351; accepts
Mendelian theory, VIII, 346
Dewberry, IV, 213; 231-232;

251-253
Dianthus, I, 123-125; 133-135;

VII, 173-177
Dictator raspberry, IV, 243
Digitalis, II, 350
Disefises of plants, VI, 234-238;

VII, 317, 319-321
Disinfectants, III, 172
Dixie lippia, VII, 267
Dodecatheon, VII, 132-133
Dogwood tree, \ III, 171
Dominance, VII, 370, 374-376
Dominant tendencies, VII, 26
Doncaster, Dr. L., quoted, I, 60
Doris hybrid plum, IV, 138
Douglas spruce, VIII, 163
Dozen Other Delightful Ber-
ries, IV, 313-348
Drainage, III, 118, 121; VII,

272-278
Drought, enemy of plants, I,
149; in New England, II, 20
Duarte plum. III, 338
Dwarf Rockv Mountain cherry,
III, 147-149

East, Prof. E. M., on orange

hybrids. III, 291
East plum, IV, 129
Easter Beurre pears. III, 163
Eel grass, II, 340
Egg plant, I, 247; V, 249
Egyptian cotton, cultivation of,

VI, 52-53
Ela^agnus, improving the, IV,

381-384
Elderberry, IV, 343-344
Elements of variation, II, 152-

155
Elimination of seeds, IV, 93-94
Elm, VIII, 172-174

'Emerson, Ralph Waldo, I, 62;
III, 341; V, 53; VIII, 1S8

Empress of India rose, VI, 238

Empson pea, ripens aU at once,
I, 272

Engelmanni, VII, 249

English Pond's seedling, II, 143

Environment, external forces in
life, I, 38; variation caused
by, I, 39; adaptation of
plants to, 1,41; life challenge
to, 1, 53; improvement of race
dependent on, I, 67; adapta-
bility of Araucarias to, I, 87;
affects heredity in sweet pea,
first main influence, I,
105; combined with heredity,
I, 167; sweetness due to, I,
177; overbalanced by heredi-
ty, I, 185; relation between
heredity and, I, 199; serves
to bring out heredity, I,
201 ; stored-up heredity com-
bined with new, I, 231; hard-
ened heredity against new, I,
252; active influence of, I,
279; influence of, II, 96-97;
stored, II, 187; native plants
adapted to, IV, 234; impor-
tance of, VIII, 361-365; city,
VIII, 364; influence on moral
and mental development,
VIII, 365; modification by,
VIII, 375

Environment and heredity, in-
teraction of, I, 42; must be
fitted to each other, I, 65

Epau potato, V, 281-282

Epoch plum, IV, 130

Eschscholtzia, I, 243; III, 65

Essential oils, VII, 41-44

Ether, effect of, on plants. III,
323

Eugenic breeding, VIII, 357-
358

Euphorbia, I, 72

Eureka raspberry, IV, 240-243

Evening primrose, II, 22-31;
V, 145

INDEX

401

Everbearing grapes, IV, 363
Evergreen blackberry, IV, 3:37-

329
Evergreen com, V, 336-338
Everlasting flowers, VII, 185-

190

EvERLASTIlfG FlOWEES AND SOME

CoMMOJT Exotics, VII, 185-
210

Evolution, I, 205-231; II, 17-
33; IV, 184; VIII, 320-322

Evolution and Variation with
THE Fundamental Signifi-
cance of Sex, I, 53-68

Experiments with the Old
Responsive Dahlia, VI, 333-
352

Factors, pairing, V, 142-1-15
Fameuse apple. III, 219-221
Family of Grasses, V, 341-

353
Feijoa, fig guava. III, 310
Fennel flower, I, 132; II, 252
Ferns, I, 63; II, 239
Ferraria, VII, 141-142
Fertilizers, III, 107-110; VII,

306, 313-814
Field and Flower Garden,

VII, 305-322
Fig, III, 306-309; IV, 343-344
Filberts, VIII, 91-95
Final Selection, III, 53-74
Five-leafed clover, VI, 34
Five-leaved ivy, VII, 249
Fixing a type, III, 27-32
Fixing Good Traits, III, 7-32
Flame Tokay, IV, 358-359
Flatfish, II, 24-25
Flavor, IV, 119

Flax, cultivation of, VI, 47-48
Flemish Beauty pear, III, 170
Floral envelope, an advertising

device, VII, 79
Floral firecracker, V, 277
Flower, I, 117-132, 151-155, 182-

191, 205-207; II, 7-16, 257-

262, 348-352; VI, 197-324,279-

304

Flower and insect, alliance

between, II, 237-238
Flowering trees, VIII, 168-169
Fly catchers, II, 99
Foliage, I, 56; III, 62-63
Food for Li\'e Stock, VI, 27-46
Forest trees, VIII, 97-174
Fortune's Yellow rose, VI, 238
Four B urban k Prunes and
THE Work Behind Them,
IV, 53-74
Four Common Flowers and
Their Improvement, VII,
163-184
Four Hundred, pedigreed cher-
ries belonging to. III, 123
Four-o'clock, VII, 121-123
Foxglove, II, 350
Fragrance, II, 7-9; VI, 211-

212; VII, 43, 44
Fragrant Calla, II, 7-33
Fragrant verbena, VII, 163-167
Franquette, VIII, 48-49
Freestone vs. clingstone fruits,

IV, 66-71, 112
Freezing, effect of, on animal

tissues. III, 325-327
French Globe artichoke, V,

219-221
Frost, I, 149; III, 113
Fruiting and blossoms, IV, 103-

107
P'ruits with Unique Quali-
ties, V, 23-38
Fruits, better qualities in, I,
259; improvements in, I, 268;
seedless, I, 268; determining
the ripening season of, I, 271 ;
good from bad ancestors, II,
129-130 ; balanced qualities,
III, 22-23; development. III,
75-98; shipping quality of,
III, 115; color, III, 118; de-
velopment of new form. III,
130-142; having high sugar
contents, IV, 31-33; quality
and size, IV, 107-113; why
profitable, IV, 175-178; in-
creased consumption of, V,

402

INDEX

40; transcontinental shipping
of, V, 44; subject to fungous
diseases, V, 46; fellow-study
of types, V, 52-53 ; advertised
in 1894, VIII, 316

Fruit trees, pruning of, III, 80;
stamina of, III, 82-85; big
fruit and free bearing, III, 85

Fundamental Principles of
PluVNT Breeding, I, 37-52

Fungous diseases, II, 53; V, 46;
VII, 317

Fuzzy Peaches and Smooth-
Skinned NECTARI^E8, III,
181-206

Gager, Prof. C. S., V, 173
Galton, F., on eugenics, VIII,

351
Galton's law, aid from, II, 199-

208
Garber pear, origin of, III,

162
Garden Royal apple, lil, 219-

221
Gardening, VII, 305-321
General Jacqueminot rose, VI,

238, 245
Gmius, breaks up into species,

I, 239

Geranium, II, 349; VI, 197-

203; VII, 180-184
Germ cell, IV, 152-158
Germ plasm, II, 231-233; V,

64, 171-173; VII, 155-160,

366, 377; VIII, 347
Germinating seeds, II, 10, 54,

279
Geyser pines, I, 91
Giant Crimson Winter rhubarb,

II, 87; V, 242-243
Giant Maritinia, IV, 123
Giants, breeding, VI. 253-257
Gilia, VI, 325; VII, 231-233
Gladiolus, improvements in,

VII, 7-32, 74-78, 316; VIII,
300

Gladwj'n, Prof. George E.,

VIII, 195, 229

Globe artichoke, V, 223
Glumes, use of, in experiments,

VI, 11-13
Oodetia, V, 145-147

Goethe, teaches mutability of

species, VII, 8
Gold Ridge Farm, Sebastopol,

III, 321; VIII, 271
Golden chestnut, VIII, 72
Golden Russet apple. III, 221
Golden West dahlia, VI, 341
Golden-leafed parsley, V, 198
Goldenrod, I, 84; VII, 139-140
(joniphrena, VII, 187
Gooseberry, IV, 333-337
Gophers, destroy gladiolus

bulbs, VII, 20-21; destroyed
by gopher gun, VII, 22

Goumi berry, IV, 381-384

Gourd family, V, 99

Grafted tree's, II, 115, 297-330,

IV, 45, 46

Ghaftinq and Budding, II, 297-

330
Grafting, rule^ for, I, 223-225;

II, 298; to save space and
time, II, 307-309; general
principles of, II, 309-312;
apples, III, 209, 223; orange,

III, 294; plumcots, IV, 189;
tomato and potato, V, 176-
177; prunes on almonds, VIII,
260-261

Grafting wax, II, 316, 319-322
Grafts from seedlings, IV, 57
Grains, improvements in, V,
341-343; crop to follow corn,

VII, 319

Grape, I, 177, 209; III, 96; IV,

349-371
Grapefruit, III, 288
Grasses, V, 341; VI, 176-191
Gravensteia apple. III, 219
Gray, Asa, on Dodecatheon,

VII, 133
Great Opportunities in the

Grape, IV, 349-371
Greatest Plum of All — The

Prune, IV, 25-52

INDEX

403

Gre«i Gage plum, IV, 49-51
Gregg raspberry, IV, 943
Ground cherry, V, 350-251
Gro^t[ng Trees for Lttmber,

VIII, 97-123
Guatemala ant, resists boll

weevil, VI, 61-68
Guinea pigs, Castle on, II, 51
Gum, sources of, VIII, 141

Haas Queen apple, III, S31

Hailstorms, I, 149

Hairy plum, V, i23-34

Hale chestnut, VIII, 63

Hale plum, IV, 18

Hales, Stephen, demonstrates

rise of sap, III, 296-299
Hansen, N. E,, cultivates sand

cherry, III, 147; on hardy

plums, IV, 131; on solanums,

IV, 299
Hardwood trees, II, 67
Hastening Methods of Frttit

Improvement, III, 75-98
Hawthorn, II, 171; V, 37
Hazelnut, VIII, 53, 91-95
Heath family, V, 34
Hedges, VII, 303
Helianthus, V, 223-225
Hemp plant, VI, 48
Herbert, Dr. William, VII, 7-8
Herbertia, VII, 143-145
Hereditary complex, VII, 153
Hereditary factors, IV, 152-

153; V, 58-64; VII, 156, 378
Heredities, I, 37-42, 93-116, 159,

167, 175, 195-203, 209, 231,

352-352; II, 77, 86, 99, 133;

III, 63, 346; IV, 31, 41, 83,

187-189, 309; VII, 111, 126,

176-177; VIII, 231-222, 349-

350, 375
Hermosa rose, VI, 229
Hermosillo plum, III, 388
Herriot rose, VI, 238
Hevea, iiibber producing trees,

VIII, 135
Hickory, II, 71; VIII, 25, 52,

77-96, 165

Hickory Nttt and Other

Nuts, VIII, 77-96
Hickory-pecan, VIII, 85
Hickory wood, used for Indian

bows, VIII, 100
Himalaya blackberry, a thorny

bush, IV, 221, 326-239
Hippeastrum, VI, 361-263
Honey prune, IV, 50
Honeysuckle, nectar of, I, 131
Hop vine, VI, 88-89
Horse-chestnut, VIII, 145
Horse-radish, V, 209-213
How Far Can Plant Improve-
ment Go? I, 233-257
How Plants Adapt Them-
selves to Conditions, I, 69-92
How THE Garden May Be
Made More PaoDtrcrivi:, V,
71-97
How THE Plum Followed the

Potato, III, 313-340
How to Obtain Variation
Among Flowers, VII, 95-116
Howard, L. O., on destructive-

ness of insects, VI, 60
Hubbard squash, V, 110-111
Hubbardstown apple. III, 221
Huckleberry, IV, 339-340
Huckleberry plum, IV, 125
Humboldt berry, renamed Phe-
nomenal, VIII, 333
Humming-birds, I, 206; VII, 31
Hungarian prune, II, 143
Husbands, Senor Jos6 D., plant

collector, VIII, 205
Hybrid Larkspur and Other
Transformations, VII, 311-
236
Hybridization, I, 39; II, 63,
114-115, 129, 171-178, 305;
III, 73; 179, 304, 230, 301-
311, 341, 349-353; IV, 17-23,
45, 85-86, 230-232, 343-344;
VI, 334; VIII, 283, 319, 341-
346
Hybrids, distinguished from
crosses, I, 309; strange traits
of, II, 75-77; display ances-

404

INDEX

tral traits, II, "77; natural,
IV, 251; perfectly balanced,
IV, 255-960; dom'ir.an!: char-
acters in, V, 141; second gen-
eration, V, 161-162; domi-
nance of minor characters in,
VIII, 343
Hypericum, for lawns, VII,
269

Iceberg blackberry, VIII, 316
Ice plant, I, 101
Immigrants, VIII, 372-375
Immunity to blight, III, 147

ImPRON-XMENTS IK THE MuCH

Improvt:d Iris, VII, 117-140

Improvements in Wheat, Oats,
Barley, VI, 7-25

Improving the Amaryllis, VI,
251-278

Inarching and bark grafting,
II, 318-319

Inbreeding, III, 10

Increasing the Prodpctiven/:s3
OF THE Cherry, III, 123-151

Indiaa corn, I, 163; V, 313, 341-
342

Indian cotton, VI, 52-53

Indian fig, V, 16

Indian's paintbrush, VII, 235

Inedible Frdits Which May
Be Transformed, IV, 373-384

Infection, III, 172

Insect and flower, alliance
between, II, 237, 331-333

Insect pests, immunization
from. III, 225

Insects, aid pollination, I, 64,
183; II, 9, 11; III, 306; de-
stroy stoneless seeds, II, 53;
intelligence of, 11,337; senses
of, II, 342-348; mixtures for
destroying, III, 109; spray-
ing to remove. III, 110; foes
of cotton, VI, 60-66 ; destruc-
tion wrought by, VII, 314-
317

Instincts, restoring submerged,
II, 103-107

Interbred species, III, 83
Inventions, V, 158-159
Inventor, compared with plant

breeder, V, 158-161
Iowa, apple experiments in,

III, 225
Iris family, VII, 141
Iris, improvements in the, VII,

117-121
Irrigation, importance in

orange industry. III, 295;

methods of, VII, 278-282;

sprinklers, VII, 279; Skinner

system, VII, 281; hose, VII,

282
Isabella Regia grape, IV, 366-

370
Italian onions, V, 193-194
Italian prunes, IV, 58
Ixia, a spectacular plant, VII,

197-199

Jacobean lily, VI, 273

Japan, plants from III, 197,

248, 249, 269, 281, 317
Japanese burdock, V, 237
Japanese chestnut, VIII, 52-

56, 65
Japanese daisy. III, 17
Japanese golden mayberry, IV,

321-325
Japanese iris, VII, 118-119
Japanese ivy, VII, 249-250
Japanese mammoth chestnut,

VIII, 296
Japanese mustard, V, 206
Japanese plum, III, 204, 343;

VIII, 268
Japanese quince, VIII, 317
Japanese rose, VI, 245
Jerusalem artichoke, V, 223
Jerusalem cherry, I, 247
Johannsen, on barley, II, 156;

on kidney beans, II, 156
Johnson, produces hybrid ama-

ryllis, VI, 262
Johnson's amaryllis, VI, 262-

263
Juglans, VIII, 35-87; 45

INDEX

405

Jumping bean, I, 141
June buds, II, 325-336

Kaffir com, V, 318-319, 338
Kale, V, 99, 117
Kapok, VII, 234
Keen's seedling, IV, 273
Kelsey plum, II, 305-307
Kelvin, Lord, on atom, IV,

155
Kentucky blue grass, VII, 270;

best for lawns, VII, 270-271
Kerosene, for disinfecting plant

wounds, III, 172
Kieffer, Mr. Peter, introduces

new pear. III, 161
King corn, ancestor of, V, 312
Kittatiny blackberry, IV, 224
Klondike tree. III, 68
Knight, Andrew, III, 160
Kohl-rabi, V, 99, 117
Kolreuter on pollination, 1, 328

Larkspur, VII, 211-236

Latex, VIII, 136-137

Lawns akd their Beautifica-
TioN, VII, 263-303

Lawns, lippia, VII, 269; Ken-
tucky blue grass, VII, 270-
371; flowers for, VII, 296

Lawton blackberry, I, 327-829;
II, 207; IV, 224, 255, 257

Leader peach. III, 201

Leaf system, IV, 103

Leaves, V, 80, 95

Le Conte pear, III, 162, 166

Leguminous plants, VI, 40-42

Le Long, on sugar prune, II,
146

Lemon, III, 288

Lemon cucumber, V, 103

Lemon Giant calla, VII, 46

Leopard lily, VII, 54

Leotsakos, on cactus fruit, V,
15

Letting the Bees Do Their
Work, II, 331-352

Lettuce, I, 151, 167, 172; V,
227, 229, 230

Let Us Now Produce Some
New Colors in Flowers, I,
175-203

Lieb, Judge, VIII, 208

Life, I, 53-55; VIII, 217-221

Ligusticum, V, 198-199

Lilac, color, VI, 325

Lilies, I, 149; V, 279; VII, 53-
61, 315, 316; VIII, 299-300

Lima bean, V, 150-153

Lime, familiar citrus fruit. III,
288

Lippia, VII, 172; for lawns,
VII, 263-269

Little Gem calla, II, 13

Liverwort, I, 68

Lock, R. H., on corn, V, 333

Locust trees, VIII, 171

Loeb on insects, II, 344-348

Loganberry, discovered by Lo-
gan, IV, 253-254

Longworth, on raspberry, IV,
235

Loquat, III, 281-284

Lovett, T. J., introduces white
blackberry, I, 325

Lumber, VIII, 97-123

Lye and sugar, IV, 38-39

Lj'scom apple, seedlings from,
III, 221

3Iadia (madder), VIII, 134
MacDougal, Dr. D. T., treats

plants with chemicals, V, 173
McFarland chestnut, VIII, 63
Madagascar, plants from, VII,

64
Madame Edouard rose, VI, 238
Madame Hulot, blue gladiolus,

VIL 29
Magnolia, VIII, 168-169
Mahaleb cherry, II, 327
Maize, improved by Indians, I,

161-164
Mala Cydonia, Roman name for

quince. III, 237
Malthus, views of, VII, 357
Mango tree, V, 71-72
Mao-li-dzi, V, 23

406

INDEX

Maple, hardiness of, VIII, 165

Marshal Niel rose, VI, 238

Marie Henriette rose, VI, 238

Marigold, VII, 217-320

Market, III, 115-118

Martin, II, 20, 101, 248

Marvelous Possibilities in the
Ijiprovemext of Plaxts, I,
259-278

Mayberry, Japanese Golden,
IV, 321-325

Mayflower verbena, VII, 163-
172

Maypop, V, 255, 258

Mazzard cherry, II, 327

Meadow lark, II, 99

Medicinal tree products, VIII,
142-143

Melon, III, 9; V, 101, 106, 107,
109

Mendel, experiments of, I, 337-
340; IV. 239; V, 138, 139,
145; VIII, 340-341; made
known by De Vries, Correns,
and Tschermak, V, 851 ; Men-
del, his theory', essential facts
of, VI, 7; theories of, in prac-
tice, VII, 347-384; principles
discovered independently by
Burbank, VII, 352

Mendelian formulae, II, 126-
127; IV, 309-311

Mendelian heredity, how deter-
mined, VII, 88; dominant
and recessive colors of flow-
ers, VII, 88-93; shown by
columbines, VII, 126; in pop-
pies, VII, 210; in hybrids,
VII, 349; significance of unit
characters, VII, 353; isolation
of groups of factors, VII,
378-379; in walnuts, VII, 383-
384

Mendelian interpretation, II,
122

Mendelism, 7, 841; VII, 352-
354, 368, 370; VIII, 340-344

"Messenger," ancestor of Amer-
ican trotting horses, III, 11

Mexico, plants from. III, 311;

V, 315-317; VII, 141; VIII,

136
Meyer, Frank F., VIII, 65
Michaelmas daisy, I, 303
Microscope, aid from the, IV,

145-149
Mildew, IV, 355; VI, 237
Milk thistle, V, 236
Milkweed, I, 129; II, 339; VII,

233-234
Miller, buys prune, IV, 51-52
Mimulus, monkey flower, VII,

259
Mints, and their allies, V, 199-

205
Mirobilis, VII, 121
Miracle plum, IV, 88
Miss Sherwood poppy, VII,

200, 208
Molecules, IV, 150-151
Montecito grape, Rutland on,

IV, 367
Moors, as cultivators of the

orange, III, 295
Morganhill prune, IV, 51-52
Morning-glory, VII, 224-225,

289, 293
Morrow, W. W., aids Burbank

work, VIII, 208
Morton, an orange hybrid. III,

292
Moss verbena, VII, 173
Mosses, II, 239
Moth, II, 332-333
Mountain ash, II, 171; V, 37
Muir peach. III, 191, 201
Mulberry, crossed with fig. III,

306-309; possibilities of, IV,

343
Muscat grapes, IV, 365
Muskmefon, V, 99, 103-106
Mustard, V, 117, 205-213
Mutability of species, VII, 7-32
Mutation, II, 14, 17, 21-33; V,

145
My Eablt Yeabs at Santa

Rosa, VIII, 243-269
Myrica, VIII, 147

INDEX

407

Myrobalan plum, II, 339
Myrtle, V, 26-29; VI, 325;
VIII, 301

Narcotics, plants produce, IV,

^3-295
Nasturtium, I, ISl; V, 908;

VII, 227-238

National peach. III, 192, 201
Native raw materials, IV, 120-

19S
Natural selection, II, 17, 105;

IV, 80; V, 43; VII, 355-368;

VIII, 339

Nature, ingenuity in, I, 209;

creates no duplicates, I, 393;

aid from IV, 82-85
Navel orange. III, 96, 393-294;

IV, 92
Nectarine, has common ances-
tor vi^ith peach, III, 189;

sometimes grown from peach

seed. III, 190; white, crossed

with Muir peach. III, 191;

crosses readily with almond

and peach, VII, 333
Need for Improving Small

Famxs, V, 39-69
"New Creations," VIII, 305, 323
"New Creations in Fruits and

Flowers," VII, 347; VIII,

294-295, 309-314
"New Creations in Plant Life, '

VIII, 215
New Plums and Peunes in the

Process of Making, IV, 115-

160
Ne Plus Ultra almond, depend-
able, VII, 344
Nettle, I, 132
Newtown Pippin, seedlings

from, III, 221
New Zealand, plants from, II,

88; III, 227; VIII, 282
New Zealand Sonchus, V, 236
Nicotiana, announcement of

new varieties, VIII, 302
Nicotunia, announcement of,

VIII, 301-302, 337

Nightshade family, IV, 293-295

Nitrates, carried to plant cells,
V, 93

Nitrogen, necessary for starch
and sugar, V, 93-93; impor-
tance in fertilizers, VII, 314

Nitrogenous matter, called pro-
tein, V, 95

Nobel, discovers nitroglycerine,
V, 159

Nonpareil almond, VII, 343-344

Northern Spy, III, 221, 226-297

Norway pine, source of resin,
VIII, 139

No Two Living Things Exact-
ly Alike, I, 117-146

Nut-bearing trees, VIII, 11

Nut crop, report for 1909,
VIII, 17-19

Nuts as a Peofttable Crop,
VIII, 7-26

Nuts, of economic importance,
VIII, 9-97

Nuttall, Dr., II, 227-231, 298

Oak, VIII, 165

Oats, III, 9; V, 343

October Giant raspberry, VIII,

316
Odor, in flowers, II, 7; VI, 348-

344
CEnothera, VII, 136
Oils, VIII, 137-140
Onion, V, 100
Opium poppy, VII, 199-208
Opulent peach. III, 192-193
Opuntia, (See Cactus)
Orange, I, 167, 172; II, 43; III,

237, 288-296, 301, 303; IV, 31,

92
Orange daisy, sun-loving flower,

I, 182-185
Orange melons, V, 107
Orange quince. III, 236
Orange sugar canes, VI, 81
Orange sweet corn, crossed

with late white, V, 335
Organisms, II, 19, 21; VII. 155,

369

408

INDEX

Orchard, ideal of, I, 267; III,
56-58; rejuvenating. III, 103-
111; location of. III, 113; im-
portance of drainage of, III,
118; site of, III, 118; anti-
septic surgery in, III, 172-
174

Orchid, pollenized by bee and
humming-bird, I, 128-129;
variation of, I, 135

Orchid-flowered c an n a , VII,
35-37

Orient, material from the, IV,
7-23

Oriental and opium poppies
crossed, VII, 201-208

Oriental pear, traits of, III,
164; immunity to pear blight,
III, 169

Oriental plums. III, 339

Oriental poppy, VII, 199-204

Oriental radish, V, 123

"Origin of Species," Darwin,
VIII, 232

Ornamental Palms and Climb-
ing Vines, VII, 237-262

Orthogenesis, II, 273

Osmosis, process by which sap
moves. III, 297-301; principle
of, V, 79; VIII, 131

Ostrich plume clematis, VII,
254

Other Useful Plants Which
Will Repay Experiment, VI,
171-196

Oxeve daisy, I, 301, 303

Oyster plant, V, 125-127

Paeonia poppy, VII, 200
Painted cup, VII, 235-236
Palm, III, 7; VII, 237-262
Pakner apple. III, 221
Pampas grass, VI, 189-191
Pansy, produced from violet, I,

155, 171
Paper Shell and Other Wal-
nuts, VIII, 27-49
Paradox berrv, IV, 258-259;
VIII, 316, 333

Paradox walnut, II, 61, 64-71,

77, 183; VII, 347-350; VIII,

34, 103, 106, 296
Parsley family, V, 197-199
Parsnip, V, 95, 124; VI, 212
Passion flower, V, 252-259
Patience and Its Reward,

VIII, 271-308
Pea, hybridized, II, 32-33; III,

9; V, 95, 129-147; VII, 96
Peach, II, 46; III, 181-206;

VII, 332, 840

Peach Blow rose, VI, 245;

VIII, 317

Pear, I, 156-160, 171, 230; II,

58, 171, 178-179; III, 81, 90-

94, 153-180, 234
Peas and Beans as Profitable

Crops, V, 129-156
Pecan, II, 71; VIII, 20-24,

82, 84-91
Pelargonium, II, 349; VII, 181
Pellier, introduced prune, II,

138
Pepper, V, 213-216
Peppergrass, V, 208-209
Pepper tree, VIII, 171
Perpetual artichoke, V, 221
Persia, plants from. III, 199
Persian melon, V, 107-109
Persian walnut, II, 61; VIII,

19, 34-49
Persimmon, III, 304-306
Personal and Historical,

VIII, 175-216
Peru, plants from, VII, 141
Peruvian ground cherry, V,

251
Pests, III, 110-111; VII, 320
Petunia, I, 247; II, 159-165;

VII, 178-180
Phenomenal berry, II, 29-30;

IV, 251-255; V, 51; VI, 257;

VIII, 816, 371

Piecing the Fragments of a
Motion-Picture Film, 1,279-
298
Pignuts, VIII, 52
Pine strawberry, IV, 272

INDEX

409

Pineapple quince, III, 94, 235,

243-246; V, 49
Pines, I, 64, 89; III, 7; VIII,

109-113
Pink, I, 117, 125; VII, 173-178
Pink chive, V, 2G2
Pitcher plant, I, 102-103
"Plan books," III, 35
Planning a New Plant, II,

185-212
Planning an Ideal Plu>i ok

Prune, IV, 75-94
Plant Affinities, II, 213-233
Plant antagonisms, II, 224-227
Plant breeder, I, 37, 43-48, 341;

III, 61-62, 71-74; V, 47
Plant breeding, possibilities of,

I, 37-52

Plant cells, V, 83-85

Plant improvement, I, 259-278;

IV, 93, 171-175
Plant-insect alliance, II, 242
Plant intelligence, II, 337-341
Plant life, I, 63-64; II, 191;

VIII, 117-123
Planting, II, 280-283
Plants Which Yield Useful

Chemical Substances, VI,

67-93
Plum, I, 262-263, 273, 280-282;

II, 35-59, 134, 144, 276-281,
305-306; III, 62, 85, 313-352;
IV, 7-179, 183-189; VII, 323-
327

Plum-almond hybrid, VII, 323-

329
Plumcot, characteristics of, I,

261-265; III, 85, 273, 343;

IV, 181-207
Plums and Prunes Without

Stones and Seeds, IV, 75-94
Plums from Eastern and

Western Sources, IV, 7-23
Pole bean, V, 147-153
Pollination, I, 117-146, 148, 151,

153, 186, 207, 327-328; II, 11,

33, 37, 63, 111-115, 117,

124, 127, 232-233, 235-266;

IV, 87, 146, 152-153, 187; VI,

230, 241, 259; VII, 29-31, 37,
51, 98-99, 120-121, 127, 131,
151-153, 181-182, 201, 233,
257, 323

Pomato, II, 169-170

Pomegranates, V, 107

Popping corn, V, 338-339

Poppy, VI, 326; VII, 199-210;
VIII, 301

Population of United States,
VIII, 363-376

Portland cement. III, 105

Portugal quince, III, 236

Potash, V, 92

Potato, I, 110-116, 247; II, 165-
169; III, 97-98, 318; IV, 293-
295; V, 95, 100, 175-180, 181-
182, 285-309; VIII, 197

Potato family, IV, 287-295

Potato Itself — Who Will Im-
prove It Further? V, 285-
309

Potato plants, II, 167

Potato roots, V, 177-178

Potato seed ball, I, 110-113; I,
116

Potato tubers, modification of,
V, 179-180

Practical Pollination, II, 235-
266

Prefatory Note, I, 21-35

Prickly pear, V, 16

Pride of the Congo, VII, 45

Pride plum, IV, 129

Primrose, II, 22; VII, 136-138

Primus berrv, II, 29; IV, 244-
255; V, 67, 161; VIII, 316,
329, 332

Prize plum, III, 338

Producing an Entirely New
Color, VI, 279-305

Profusion amaryllis, a free
bloomer, VI, 271

Propagat ion, complementary
modes of, VII, 160-162

Protein, V, 95

Protoplasm, II, 225, 232;
III, 327; IV, 152, 158; V, 92,
93; 184-185; VIII, 349

410

INDEX

Prune, II, 58, 138-158; IV, 25-

179
Pnines, the order for 20,000

trees, VIII, 256; grafted on

almonds, VIII, 260-261
Pruning, II, 330; III, 104-105
Pumpkin, V, 99, 109
Punnett hybridized peas, II,

32-33
PuHEST White ik Natuhe, VII,

63-93
Purple-leaved cabbage, V, 120

Qualities for fruit, II, 120-
123

Quality asparagus, V, 248

Quality, breeding for. III, 89

Quality peach. III, 192

Quality wheat, VI, 21

QuAKTTiTY Production, II, 267-
296

Quince, Beecher's formula for
cooking. III, 235; orange and
Portugal crossed, III, 237;
Van Deman, III, 240; pine-
apple, III, 243-246; Bur-
bank, III, 247; Chinese, III,
248-256; crosses with oriental
stock. III, 24.9-253 ; Japanese,
III, 255; possibilities of, III,
258 ; Van Deman, Santa Rosa,
Alpha, and Dazzle, VIII, 297

Race, American, VIII, 359-
361, 374

Races, donunant characteris-
tics, III, 30; selecting and
fixing new traits, III, 68;
combination of, VIII, 367-369

Racial strains, result of, VIII,
368

Racial traits, revealed by hy-
brids, VIII, 298

Radioactivity, V, 159

Radish, V, 99, 116, 121, 123

Rae's Mammoth quince. III,
236, 242

Railroad, importance of near-
ness, III, 115

Rainbow corn, V, 320-326 j VIII,

30T
Rainbow rose, VI, 338
Raisin, IV, 350

Ram, Ancon, Darwin on, II, 22
Rambo apple. III, 221
Ranimculus, V, 281
Raspberry, II, 172-173; IV,

233-200; V, 29, 153
Raspberry and Some Odd

Crosses, IV, 233-260
Reatia luxvrians (Teosinte),

Indian corn developed from,

V, 313
Recessivenesfi, VII, 370-376
Reclaiming the Deserts with

Cactus, VI, 95-170
Recording Experiments, III,

33-52
Red cranberry bean, V, 147
Red-fleshed plums. III, 338
Redistribution of characters,

VII, 350
Red potato, IV, 92
Redwoods, VIII, 151-154
Reine rose, VI, 238
Relationship between plants,

II, 220-222
Resins, VIII, 137-140
Responsiveness of the Pear,

III, 153-180

Rest stimulates growth, III,
322-325

Results, how obtained, VI, 266

Rhodanthe, everlasting flower,
VII, 186-187

Rhode Island greening, seed-
lings from, III, 221

Rhubarb, winter, II, 87-110;
edible portion, V, 247

Rice, important vegetable food,
V, 342; varieties of, VI, 172-
173; characteristics of, VI,
175-176

Rich Fieu) for Work in the
Textile Plants, VI, 47-66

Richmond cherry. III, 149

Rivalry of Plants to Please
Us, I, 147-173

INDEX

411

Rontgen, discovers X-ray, V,
159

Root system. III, 106; V, 80

Rosales, members of, I, 237

Rose, developed for beauty, II,
258; Burbank and others, VI,
235-234; susceptibility to dis-
ease, VI, 235; robust ram-
blers, VI, 238-247; possibili-
ties for new fruits, VI, 249;
announcement of new vari-
eties, VIII, 297

Rose geranium, crossed, VII,
183

Rotation of crops, importance
of, VII, 314-321

Roxbury Russet apple, seed-
lings from, III, 221

Royal apricot. III, 280

Royal Walkut, II, 61-86

Royal walnut, II, 68-86, 180;
VII, 347-S49; VIII, 38-42,
91, 103-106, 296, 335-337.

Rubber, production of, VIII,
132-137

Rubio plum. III, 338

Rusk, an orange hybrid. III,
291

Russian cucumber, common
cucumber crossed with, V,
103

Rust, enemy of grains, V, 345-
350

Rutherford on atom, IV, 154-
155

Rutland, John M., buys spine-
less cactus, VI, 127-129

Rutland plumcot, IV, 196-197

Rye, grown from seed. III, 9;
importance, V, 342

Sage, VII, 135

Sagebrush, I, 72

Salinas Burbank potatoes, V,

299
Salmonberry, IV, 319-321
Salpiglossis, VII, 178
Salsify, V, 125-128
Salvia, VII, 133-136

Sandbtir, VII, 285

Sand cherry. III, 147-161; IV,
130

San Jose scale, mixture for de-
stroying, III, 109

Sans Noyau, II, 37-59

Santa Rosa, VII, 143; VIII,
33; in 1875, VIII, 199; Bur-
bank's early years in, VIII,
243-269 ; Burbank's descrip-
tion of, VIII, 245-248; drain-
age and fertilization at, VIII,
262-263; fruit and flowers
produced at, VIII, 315

Santa Rosa catalogue, VIII,
322

Santa Rosa plum. III, 338; IV,
21

Santa Rosa rose, VI, 283-234

Santa Rosa wahiut, VIII, 29-
33

Sap, rise of, III, 296-301

Sap-hybridism, II, 305-307; V,
182-186

Sassafras, VIII, 146-147

Satsuma, red-fleshed plum, III,
319-340; IV, 196

Sawdust, II, 281

Scab, fungus disease, III, 109

Scientific plant development, I,
51

Scilla, V, 271

Scotch fir, VIII, 139

Sea Island cotton, VI, 52

Sebastopol, VII, 16, 68, 143;
VIII, 204, 271-276

Seckel pear trees. III, 161, 178,
211

Second-generation hybrids, VII,
327, 349; VIII, 343-344

Seed, life history of plant
stored in, I, 109; may be
eliminated, II, 57; essential
part of fruit. III, 95; im-
portance of the, IV, 261;
growth of, V, 72

Seedgraft hybrid, V, 151

Seedless fruits, outlook for, IV,
92-94

412

INDEX

Seedless plum, first grown in
France, II, 37-39; proves
favorite, II, 57-58

Seedless grapes, IV, 93

Seedling fruits, II, 329

Seedling kindergarten, II, 286-
288

Seedlings and their care,
II, 267-396, 326; color of
plum, II, 306 ; sidegrafted, II,
312; selecting. III, 53-74;
peach-nectarine. III, 192;
Japanese, IV, 7; of prunes,
IV, 86; show variation, IV,
117; beach plum, IV, 126; of
a bud sport, IV, 365-367; of
cannas, VII, 38-39; Wat-
sonia, VII, 74-78; variations
in, VII, 103-104; of four-
o'clocks, VII, 122; of Canary
palm, VII, 245; of clematis,
VII, 255; of lippias, VII,266;
plum-almond hybrids, VII,
323; of peach or almond,
VII, 332; of Roval and
Paradox hybrids, VIII, 39-
40; grafting of Japanese va-
riety, VIII, 55-56; of Se-
quoias, VIII, 151, 154, 156;
of catalpas, VIII, 169; of
magnolias, VIII, 169; of
almonds, VIII, 259-261; ex-
periments, VIII, 338-339

Seeds, store up tendencies of
ancestors, I, 106; germinat-
ing, give heat, II, 10; growth
from, II, 54; of Royal wal-
nut, II, 73; necessary to an-
nual, II, 249; keeping over
winter, II, 279-280; testing,
II, 286; protective coverings
of, IV, 78-79 ; of prunes, IV,
81-82; of grapes, IV, 365;
vitality of, V, 170-175; of can-
nas, VII, 38-39; may lie dor-
mant, VII, 290; inspection
for purity, VII, 290-291;
sampled for weeds, VII,
291

Segregation of characters, VII,
350

Selection, of cherries, per-
sistent, II, 119; the impor-
tance of. III, 53-74; for
aroma and color. III, 63-65;
material for. III, 72-74; for
size and sweetness of fruits,
III, 88; of quince. III, 245;
methods of, VII, 96-97; from
second - generation hyb rids,
VII, 324; materials for, VIII,
102-105; need of, VIII, 369-
372, 377

Selection and Mendelism, VII,
376-384

Selective breeding. III, 139

Selective judgment, put to test,

III, 57-59
Self-fertilization, II, 253, 255,

339
Self-preservation, I, 73, 91
Senses, of insects, II, 342-348
Sensitive plant, I, 100
Sequoia, survivors of another

age, VIII, 120, 149-157
Seralian, Mr. M. K., secures

Syrian grapes, IV, 359
Sex, purpose of, I, 60-61
Shaffer's colossal raspberry,

IV, 240-241, 258
Shasta Daisy, I, 299-324
Shasta daisy, larger than

parents, II, 131; plans for,

II, 193; on the witness stand,

III, 15-21; qualities, VI, 307-
331

Sheep sorrel, VII, 295
Shellbark hickory, VIII, 77-81
Shirley poppv, VI, 283-293
Shooting star, VII, 132-133
Shobt Cuts into the Cen-

TTTRiEs to Come, I, 205-231
Shrubs, fruit-bearing, V, 34;

for ornament, VII, 302-303
Siberia, plants from, VII, 269
Siberian raspberry, VIII, 329
Silverberrv, IV, 383-384
Silver-lining poppy, VI, 295-296

INDEX

413

Simon, introduces plum, IV,

139-141
Single-husked corn, V, 317-320
Smith pear, origin of, III, 163
Snalie cucumber, V, 103-104
Snapdragon, II, 349
Snowball, I, 151
Snowdrift clematis, VII, 254
Snowflake calla, VIII, 317
Snyder blackberry, IV, 224
Soil, of temperate zone, II, 82-
83, new, stimulative, II,
105; suitable for seedlings,
II, 284-286; kinds of. III,
107; water greatest factor to,
V, 75-76; improvement of,
VII, 272-283; cheniistry and
physics of, VII, 308-318; ef-
fect of legumes on, VII, 318;
infested with insects and dis-
ease, VII, 320-321
Solanum family, I, 246; II, 166-

167
Some Common Garden Plants
AND Their Improvebient, V,
99-128
Some Interesting Failures, II,

159-184
Some Plants Used for Food

AND Flavor, V, 189-216
Some Practical Orchard
Plans and Methods, III, 99-
122
Sorghum, V, 338; VI, 77-83
South Dakota, apple experi-
ments in. III, 225
Spanish bayonet, II, 331
Spanish onion, V, 196-197
Spanish salsify, V, 127
Species, undergo changes, I,
38-68, 233, 239; blooming
at different times, II, 224;
strange, work with, IV, 359-
365; methods of elimination,

VII, 361; too divergent,

VIII, 369

Spencer, Herbert, on evolution,

I, 319
Spineless cactus. {See Cactus)

Spineless Opuntia. (See Cac-
tus)
Splendor plum, II, 144-145
Splendor prune, IV, 54-56, 73;

VIII, 316
Sports, I, 39; II, 14-17, 21, 25,

48; III, 293; VII, 109
SprekeUa, VI, 261
Spruce gum, VIII, 141
Squash, V, 109-116; VIII, SOS-
SOB
Squills, hybridized with Camas-

sias, V, 271
Squirting cucumber, I, 139-141
Stamens, II, 11, 361-265
Standard blackberry, IV, 227
Standard prune, IV, 57, 63-66
Stanley, on raspberry, IV, 317
Starch, II, 151; V, 91-95; 331
Sticktights, VII, 285
Stock, II, 301-311
Stolons, II, 176

Stone, what it means to the
fruit, IV, 76-82, 112, 189-191
Stone fruits, II, 45
Stoneless hybrids, IV, 90-91
Stoneless peach. III, 202-206
Stoneless Plum, II, 35-59
Stoneless plum, I, 172; II, 35-
59, 193, 275; III, 71-72, 97,
98; IV, 85, 112
Stoneless prune, IV, 71-94
Story of Luther Burbank,

VIII, 217-241
Stowell's Evergreen corn, V, 338
Strawberry, II, 173-175; IV,

261-286, 349; V, 41, 47
Strawberry tomato, V, 250
Strawberry tree, V, 34-35
Street, trees for, VII, 303
Subtropical fruits. III, 304-

306
Suckering, V, 325
Sugar beet, VI, 89-93
Sugar cane, VI, 75-85
Sugar maple, VIII, 125-131
Sugar Prune, II, 133-158
Sugar prune, IV, 56-63
Sultan plum. III, 338

414

INDEX

Summary of the Work, VIII,

309-347
SrNBEERY — A Productiok from

THK Wild, IV, 287-311
Sunberry, III, 94; IV, 287-293
Sunlight, effects of, VII, 83-85
Superlative prune, II, 145-148
Swaar apple. III, 221
Sweet clover, VI, 29-32
Sweet corn, V, 326-331
Sweet pea, I, 141; VI, 209
Sweetwater grape, IV, 359

TarrvtoMai canna, VII, 33-34
Tarweed, II, 214-215; VIII, 134
Teachixo the Glaoiolxxb New

H.VBITS, VII, 7-36
Tecoma, VII, 267
Temperature, III, 113-114
Teosinte, I, 163-164; V, 313-317
Test pear. III, 167
Texas Prolific almond, VII, 344
The Stjkberhy — A Phoditctiok

FROM the Wild, IV, 287-311
Theophrastus, on pink, VII, 177
Thimbleberry, V, 30
Thistle, V, 232-233; VII, 285
Thompson's seedless grape, IV,

359-361
Thomson on atom, IV, 155
Thornless Blackberry and

Others, IV, 209-232
Thornless blackberry, II, 87
Thyme, V, 201-205
Tiger flower, VII, 141-163
TiGBiDiA AXD Some Ixtebestiitg

Hybrids, VII, 141-162
Tiles, for drainage, VII, 275
Time, limiting factor, II, 114-

115; element in determining

fixity of plants, III, 8
Timothy grass, popularity of,

VI, 27-23
Tobacco plant, I, 247; IV, 294
Tokay grape, IV, 358
Tomato, I, 246, 250; V, 100,

157-187, VIII, 308
Tomato — And an Interesting

Experiment, V, 157-187

Tongue graft, II, 315, 317
Tragedy plum, IV, 176-177
Tragedy prune, IV, 63
Trailing myrtle, VII, 265
Transformation of the

Qn NCE, III, 235-259
Transom Fr^res nurseries, II,

39
Transplanting, I, 179-181; II,

288-291
Tree, responds to environment,
I, 93; early fruiting, I, 274;
speeding growth of, II, 61-
86; grafting, 11,115,309-330;
adapted to climate, II, 133-
158; reproduction of, II, 243;
permanence. III, 76; fruit,
III, 99-122; pruning essen-
tial, IV, 103; should resist
disease, IV, 112; V, 53; rise
of sap, V, 79; position of,
VII, 301-303; lumber, VIII,
97-123; useful, VIII, 125-118;
ornamental and shade, VIII,
149-174
Tree lupine, VI, 324
Trees and Shrubs for Shade
AND Ornament, VIII, 149-
174
Trees Whose Products are
Useful Substances, VIII,
125-148
Trillium, I, 88-89; VII, 60
Triumph plumcot, IV, 203
Tropical fruits. III, 309-311
Tropics, vegetation in, VII,
161 ; valuable tree products
from, VIII, 142; need for
experiment in, VIII, 143
Tropasolum, VII, 227-228
Trotting horse, "Messenger,"

ancestor of. III, 11-13
Tscher«iak, on Mendel, V, 351;
Tulip tree, survivor of another
age, VIII, 120; value for
ornament, VIII, 167-168
Tunicate com, V, 318
Turbine squash, V, 109
Turkestan alfalfa, VI, 36-37

INDEX

415

Turner, Dr., on bees, II, 347
Turnip, V, 99, 116, 119, 121
Turpentine, VIII, 139-140
Twenty-Three Potato Seeds

AKD What They Taught, I,

93-116

Unexpected results, VII, 106-

113
Unicellular forms, I, 54, 56
Unit characters, II, 124, SOS-
SIS; IV, 147-149; VII, 376-
384
Unit complexes, VII, 377
United States Bureau of Indus-
try, VI, 55-57
Upland rice, characteristics of,

VI, 174
Uredospore, V, 349

Vacaville, IV, 69

Valencia, shipping port for
oranges. III, 295

Van Deman quince. III, 338-
241; V, 49

Van Deman, H. E., Ill, 330,
334

Van Mons, Jean Baptiste, de-
velops pear. III, 160

Vant Hoff, on rise of sap. III,
297-301

Variation, without crossing, I,
39; means of adjustment to
conditions, I, 42; infinite in-
genuity in, I, 117-146; man
compared with flowers, I,
167 ; heredity disturbed to pro-
duce, I, 191; combinations in-
sure, I, 209, 239 ; elements of,
II, 152-155; habit of, III,
8, 63; reasons for. III, 345-
349; rapid change, VI, 226;
materials for, VI, 230; stim-
ulated by hybridization, VI,
257; time to look for, VII,
101; methods of stimulating,

VII, 116, 161; in second gen-
eration, VII, 324

Vegetable kingdom, I, 235-236

V^egetables, arranging ripening

season of, I, 271
V'eitch, VII, 261
Verbena, VII, 168-173
Vlnca majoi-, VII, 365
Vines, for ornament, VII, 248-

256
Violets, improvement and cul-
ture of, I, 153-155, 167, 171;

II, 251-252
Virgil, quoted, I, 223
Virginia creeper, VII, 249-250
Von Gaertner, on pollination,

I, 328
Vries, Hugo de, on Mendel, I,

339; on mutation, II, 21-32;

on stoneless plum, IV, 75-76;

on Burbank catalogue, VIII,

305-306

Wachusett blackberry, IV, 211
Wagener apple. III, 221
Wallace, Alfred Russell, dis-
coveries of, VII, 359
Walnut, development of, II, 30,
61-86, 157, 180-181; IV, 67;
gigantic trees produced by
hybridization, VI, 257; Para-
dox and Royal, VII, 347-349;
importance, VIII, 19-20;
methods of hybridizing, VIII,
42-45; cultivation, VIII, 43-
49; Persian and Californian
crossed, VIII, 102; Royal
and Paradox trees, VIII, 103-
106, 296; hardiness of, VIII,
165
Walnuts and Other Experi-
ments, VII, 347-384
Wasp, fertilizes figs. III, 306
Water, all-importance of, V,
75-85; oversupply of, VII,
275
Water cress, V, 117
Watermelon, V, 99
Water plants, II, 339-340
Waters, Elizabeth, marries

Luther Burbank, VIII, 223
Watsonia, VII, 63-93

416

INDEX

Waverley clematis, VII, 254
Waxberry, VIII, 14T-148
Wax grafting, II, 316, 319-322
Wax myrtles, VIII, 317
Webber, H. H., experiments of,

VI, 60

Weeds, menace of, VII, 282-
296; annuals and perennials,

VII, 283; annual, how pre-
vented, VII, 284; perennial,
how prevented, VII, 284-285;
with feathery seeds, VII,
287; how protected, VII,
288; introduced witli seeds,
VII, 289; worst in California,
VII, 291; how exterminated,
VII, 294-296

Weissmannian doctrine, VIII,

346-347
West's Mammoth quince, III,

236
What the Buebank Plusis
AND PiiuxEs Have Earxed,
IV, 161-179
What to Work for in

Flowers, VI, 197-224
Wheat, reproduction of, I, 132;
Prof. Biffin, on, II, 208-212;
pollination of, II, 253, 255;
grown from seed. III, 9-10;
chief vegetable food, V, 342;
subject to rust, V, 347-349;
analysis by Professor Biffen,
VI, 8; with beardless ears,
VI, 10; segregation of unit
characters, VI, 13-14; hybri-
dizing wild with cultivated,
VI, 23-25
Whip graft, II, 315, 817
White Blackberry, I, 325-352
White blackberrv, I, 325-352;
II, 30, 36, 122,' 131, 193, 305-
208; IV, 218
White daisj', ancestors pre-
ferred shade, I, 182-183
"WTiite grape, IV, 355
White mustard, pest, V, 207
White strawberry, IV, 28^4
Wichuriana rose^ VI, 238, 245

Wickson plum, IV, 18-19, 21,

166-167; V, 49; VIII, 316
Wild flowers, color variation

in, VI, 323-324
Wild-Goose plum, IV, 121
Wild lettuce, VII, 285
Wild oats, IV, 77
Wild plants, I, 199; III, 8
Wild plum, IV, 34
Wild radish, VII, 295
William's Favorite apple, III,

221
Willits, an orange hybrid. III,

291-292
Wilson Junior berry, IV, 226
Wind, carries seed and polien,

I, 64, 134, 149
Windbreaks, VII, 303
Wind-loving plants, II, 245
Wineberry, V, 33
Winter Rhubarb, II, 87-110
Winter rhubarb, II, 108-110;

V, 239-249
Winter Rhubarb and Other

Interesting Exotics, V, 239-

259
Wistaria, variety in types, VII,

259-260
Wonderberry, IV, 289, 292
Wonder ixia, VII, 198
Woodward, Dr., theory of, I,

335
Woolly aphis. III, 225-226
Word to the Reader, I, 17-20
Working with a Universal

Flower— The Rose, VI, 225-

250
Wormwood, I, 85

Xanthium, VII, 285

Yellow Bellflower apple. III,

221
Yellow field com, V, 329-331
Yerba btienn, V, 201-203
Yucca, in the desert, I, 85; II,

331-337

Zea, V, 317-339

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