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LUTHER BURBANK
HIS METHODS AND DISCOVERIES AND
THEIR PRACTICAL APPLICATION
PREPARED FROM
HIS ORIGINAL FIELD NOTES
adr ey MORE THAN 100,000 EXPERIMENTS
DE DURING FORTY YEARS DEVOTED
TO PLANT IMPROVEMENT
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF
The Luther Burbank Society
D ITS
ENTIRE. MEMBERSHIP
UNDER THE EDITORIAL DIRECTION OF
John Whitson and Robert John
AND
Henry Smith Williams, M. D., LL. D.
VOLUME IV
ILLUSTRATED W
105 — pent PHOTOGRAPH PRINTS PRODUCED BY A
ROCESS DEVISED AND ad FOR
USE IN THESE VOLUME
NEW YORK AND LONDON
LUTHER BURBANK PRESS
MCMXIV abe
i
ea
vate
|
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Copyright, 1914, by
The Luther Burbank Society
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London
All rights reserved
Vill
Volume IV— By Chapters
NMRUM ed le apennesnsvnnviee Page 3
Quick Possibilities in
Fruit Improvement
—Specific Needs, and How
to Accomplish Them
Practical Orchard Plans
and Methods
—How to Begin and
Carry on the Work
Doubling the Productiveness
of the Cherry
—More and Bettcr
acme eee ee ee ee eee E THERE ESET HH ESES ESTES EEEH EES
The Responsiveness
of the Pear
—What Has Been Done Is
But the Beginning
see e eter eee eeeee seer eres seesereseese
Fuzzy Peaches and
Smooth-Skinned Nectarines
—Two Fruits Which Beg for
More Improvement
sewer ee ee eeeesaseeeeseseeseeseeseee
The Apple — A Fruit Worthy of
Still Further Improvement.
—New Apples and How
to Make Them) oc casvesaeccescewecvescadeececens sam
The Transformation
of the Quince
—What Was Only a Cooking Fruit
Now Delicious Raw
The Apricot and
the Loquat
—An Opportunity for
the Experimenter, ..........0ceeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeceens
ee ec cress rose ceesesesesesesseesese®
Citrus Fruits — And Fruits
From the Tropics
—New Experiments Well
Worth Trying .......cccccsscccccccecccccvccseseceess
105
141
177
211
241
FOREWORD TO VOLUME IV
We begin, now, to take up with greater detail,
practical combinations of method—particularly as
applied toward producing new orchard fruits. In
this volume Mr. Burbank has covered practically
all the simple orchard fruits save the plum and the
prune.
Although the purpose, here as before, is to be as
specific as possible, yet the facts are carried
through in narrative form, showing, always, how
the actual method employed fits into the scheme
of work as outlined in Volumes I, II and III.
From this volume the reader will glean much
of practical interest and value from Mr. Burbank’s
experience with laying out orchards, to making
orchards pay, and to the practical management of
orchards—with an eye always to the bearing of
Mr. Burbank’s work upon the improvement of the
human plant.
THE EDITORS.
The Plumcot
This remarkable fruit was produced by Mr. Burbank
by hybridizing the Chinese plum and the apricot. Most plant
breeders held that so wide a cross was impossible, and in point of
fact the hybridization was not effected without difficulty.
The story is told in detail in the text. The hybrid prod-
uct is virtually a new species, of which Mr.
Burbank has developed many varieties.
QUICK POSSIBILITIES IN
FRUIT IMPROVEMENT
Speciric NEEDS,
AND How To AccOMPLISH THEM
HE old pear tree out there in the corner of
your garden was perhaps planted by your
father’s father.
The twig you cut from it today may take root
and become a thrifty tree that will bear fruit to
gladden the hearts of your grandchildren long
years after you are dead. And that possibility
puts the tree on a very different footing as the
friend and companion of man from that occupied
even by the best-prized members of the company
of forage plants and garden vegetables.
When you work with fruit trees you are mak-
ing permanent records. You are building on a
rock. You are reaching out your hands to future
generations, and erecting a monument that will
remain as a testimonial to your foresight and
wisdom long after you are gone.
And doubtless this fact of the permanence of
[VotcmE I1V—Cuapter [}
LUTHER BURBANK
the tree accounts in large measure for the interest
with which almost anyone will take up the culture
of fruits if given the opportunity. Not that we are
always thinking of posterity; but one can develop
an enthusiasm about the production of something
having an element of permanency that does not
attach to such transient things as annual or bien-
nial plants.
The fruit tree in the old orchard is like an old
friend when we get back to it. The mere view of
it brings up reminiscences of our youth, and the
tree that we planted in childhood may remain as
a stimulus to us in old age. ;
There is no friendlier compact than that be-
tween man and the fruit tree.
It is an age-long compact withal. Not so
ancient as the compact of bees and flowers—for
as compared with the archaic and honorable order
of insects man is a parvenu—but far older than
human civilization none the less.
Indeed, it was probably the fruit tree, giving
an example of fixity of habitat, that encouraged
man to give up the life of a nomad and establish
a fixed abode.
Not unlikely it was the evidence presented by
the fruit tree that first suggested to man the possi-
bility of raising a supply of foods from the soil,
and thus lured him away from the precarious
[8]
The Old Idea of an
Orchard and the
New
The center of the
picture shows the new
type of orchard—the trees
so small that a good part
of the fruit can be picked
without the use of a lad-
der. At the right is the
eld type of orchard, in
which much of the energy
of the tree was allowed
to go to the development
of needless branches, mak-
ing it difficult to care for
the tree properly, and
particularly difficult to
gather the fruit.
LUTHER BURBANK
pursuits of the hunter and fisher and put him on
the road to future greatness.
And all along the road of advancing civiliza-
tion the friendship with the fruit tree has been
kept up. Yet it is only in comparatively recent
times, probably, that rapid progress has been
made in aiding our coadjutors of the pomological
world to step forward and better themselves as
man had long ago bettered himself with their
assistance, To be sure, our forebears developed
many forms of fruit that were not lacking in pal-
atability; but the great advances in the improve-
ment of orchard fruits are matters of the nine-
teenth century.
Recent progress in this field has been almost
as wonderful as progress in the fields of mechanics
and electricity.
The orchard fruits of today that find their way
to the markets are so different in size and quality
from the fruits with which our grandparents were
satisfied—even though some of them are grown
on cions grafted on the old trees—as to seem to
belong almost to different orders, certainly to dif-
ferent species from the fruit stocks from which
they have been developed.
Yet what has been done is only the beginning.
We speak of “perfected” fruits, and in a sense the
word is justified, so conspicuous are the good
[10]
ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
qualities of the new fruits as contrasted with the
old. But no fruit has really been perfected, in the
sense of having reached the limits of improve-
ment.
There are numberless opportunities for better-
ment even in the case of the very finest varieties
of fruits of every kind.
The successive chapters of the present volume
will be devoted to specific suggestions as to the
betterment of each of the important classes of
orchard fruits. In the present chapter, it is my
purpose to take a general survey of the field,
pointing out various lines of betterment not so
much with reference to any particular fruit, al-
though we shall constantly draw our illustrations
from specific fields, as with reference to the
entire class of orchard fruits.
The suggestions here outlined are the result of
lifelong association with trees of the orchard.
Probably not less than half my experiments of
every character have been conducted in connec-
tion with one form or another of fruit trees.
And a very large proportion of my most im-
portant new products, considered from an eco-
nomic standpoint, have been products of the
orchard.
As To MERE SIZE
Almost the first thought that comes to one
[11]
LUTHER BURBANK
who goes into the average orchard and looks about
with a really observant eye is that orchard trees
in general are not well-adapted to man’s needs in
the matter of size.
I have in mind certain orchards of New
England and Long Island, for example, in which
the apple trees seem to have done their very best
to rival the elms and oaks in size. Their trunks
and main central branches rise, barren of fruit-
producing branches, to a height of twenty or even
thirty feet.
The strength of the tree has gone to producing
wood instead of fruit-bearing twigs. Such fruit
as does appear is suspended so high that long
ladders are required to reach it when it has
ripened.
This is obviously all wrong. There is no reason
why the apple tree should be permitted to grow
high into the air even if it has the inherent pro-
pensity to do so. By proper trimming, the young
tree can be made to assume a spreading form, so
that it will bear most of its fruit within easy reach.
Moreover, it is easily possible through selective
breeding to develop an apple stock that will have
no tendency to grow into tall, or otherwise ill-
shaped trees, but will naturally take on the com-
pact, low-growing habit that is to be desired in a
fruit tree.
[12]
A Perfect Apple
This picture shows
one of the many types
of new crossbred apples
that Mr. Burbank has de-
veloped. He _ considers
this as representing prac-
tically an ideal form of
fruit, and he urges that
there is no reason why all
the apples in the orchard
should not conform to, or
at least approximate, the
ideal type. Selective
breeding and _ intelligent
supervision are of course
required to accom-
plish this,
LUTHER BURBANK
What is true of the apple is equally true of its
cousin the pear. This tree also has been per-
mitted in the old-time orchards to develop the
pernicious habit of too slender upright growth and
undesirable tallness, too much like a wildling,
These defects have been corrected with some of
the newer varieties, to be sure, but these have not
been introduced universally.
The same criticism applies to the cherry.
Everyone knows how often this tree is seen grow-
ing in the New England dooryard, with trunk like
that of the sturdiest oak, and with its inviting
clusters of red fruit suspended at such a height
as to be quite beyond reach of everyone but the
birds. °
A well-trained cherry should renounce this
tantalizing habit and make its wares reasonably
accessible to the wingless biped that has fostered
it.
The other notable members of the company
of orchard trees, namely the plum, peach, quince
and orange, have in the main developed a more
commendable habit of growth. Their trees are
for the most part not too large, and the best
varieties have a spreading form that leaves little
to be desired. But some of these, and in particu-
lar the peach and orange, have other faults that
urgently call for correction.
[14]
ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
The peach in particular is a tender and short-
lived tree, peculiarly subject to the attacks of
insects and to fungoid pests.
Seemingly the developers of this luscious fruit
have been so concerned to foster the remarkable
qualities of the fruit itself that they have neglected
the tree on which the fruit grows. So the peach
orchard, instead of outlasting a human generation
as it should, is an ephemeral growth, the indi-
vidual trees of which are in good bearing only for
a few years, after which they must be replaced.
The peach grower is always uprooting the
dead trees in one part of his orchard and planting
new ones in another.
THE QUESTION OF STAMINA
Unfortunately the peach is so specialized that
it will not thrive on any roots except its own. It
should be possible, however—at least the project
is one that invites the experimenter—to develop a
more vigorous and longer-lived race of peaches.
Something could doubtless be done by mere selec-
tion, taking cions for grafting or raising seedlings
from the hardiest and most vigorous trees of the
orchard. It has been shown that it is possible to
hybridize the peach with its hardier relative the
almond. Probably in successive generations there
might be developed a hybrid stock of trees that
would retain all the good qualities of the peach
[15]
LUTHER BURBANK
and yet would be as long-lived and vigorous as the
almond, and hardier and more resistant than
either.
It is true that no very striking results have yet
been produced by crossing almond and peach,
though many unusually vigorous and rapid-grow-
ing trees have been produced which will far out-
grow the most vigorous individuals of either
species.
But hybridizing, followed by rigid and persist-
ent selection, is a practical method that is still in
its infancy. It is not so very long since orchardists
in general, supported by technical botanists, de-
nied the possibility of hybridizing different
species.
My long series of varied experiments were
perhaps more directly instrumental than any other
influence in showing the fallacy of this belief. The
reader will recall that I have in many instances
interbred species belonging to different genera;
and that the interbreeding of different species in
my orchards and gardens is a commonplace. Yet
it is still true that there are many cases in which
there are seeming barriers erected between plants
that obviously are closely related, which prevent
the advantageous hybridizing and grafting of one
species with another.
And the peach is a case in point. It accepts the
[16]
The Ideal Peach—
and Some Others
At the left, some
peaches of the type
developed by Mr. Burbank
through crossbreeding. At
the right, peaches of a
type of which the average
peach orchard furnishes
only too many examples.
There is no reason why
the main crop of the or-
chard should not conform
to the type of peaches at
the left, if Mr. Burbank’s
methods of selection
are followed out.
LUTHER BURBANK
pollen of its nearest relations (except the almond)
unwillingly, and as yet no useful product has
come of such union.
Yet the peach is not more isolated in this re-
gard than its relative, the apricot, seemed to be
until I was able, after many futile efforts, to
break through the barriers and hybridize that
fruit with the plum. The hybrid that resulted,
named the plumcot, is virtually a new species. It
combines the good qualities of both parents and
is a very valuable addition to the list of orchard
fruits. It seems not unlikely that some future ex-
perimenter will be able to effect a correspondingly
useful hybridization of the peach; then the way
will be open for the development of a race of
peaches that will combine with the existing quali-
ties of fruit production the qualities of hardiness
and resistance to disease that the present peach
tree so notably lacks.
Bia Fruir AND FREE BEARING
Size of fruit and prolific bearing are charac-
teristics of such obvious desirability that they
cannot be overlooked even by the tyro.
Yet the average amateur, who has a group of
fruit trees in his garden or even a fair-sized
orchard on his country place, is content to buy
large, handsome, and well-seasoned fruits in the
market, taking it for granted that his own trees
[18]
ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
cannot be expected to supply similar products.
But in point of fact it is well within the possi-
bilities to produce good orchard fruits wherever
the trees exist that produce any fruit at all. Con-
ditions of soil and climate cannot, of course, be
ignored. One cannot grow oranges in Canada or
grapefruit in New England—as yet. But if you
have apple trees or pears or plums or cherries that
bear fruit, it is a matter of your own choice
whether they shall bear good fruit or bad.
All that is necessary is that you should send
to some reputable nurseryman or orchardist and
secure cions of good variety for grafting on your
trees.
All apple trees are closely related, the culti-
vated varieties being without exception of mixed
strains. The same is true of pears and plums and
cherries. In each case you may graft on your
native stock cions of any variety of the same
species, or a dozen or a score of different vari-
eties, and, if the work is done properly and at the
right season, the new twigs will soon become a
part of the old tree as regards vitality and capacity
for growth and fruiting; but—as we have learned
in earlier chapters—they will retain their inherent
hereditary tendencies as to quality of fruit.
Growing side by side, on the same tree, you
may have summer apples and winter apples, sweet
[19]
LUTHER BURBANK
apples and sour, green varieties and red varieties.
And all this without any necessity for experi-
mentation on your part. You need have no knowl-
edge of plant breeding except an understanding
of the simple technique of grafting.
The professional experimenters have supplied
the material; you have but to avail yourself of the
results of their work.
Of course, if you wish to go a step farther there
are inviting fields that you may enter. With the
materials furnished by a single old apple treé you
may become a plant developer. You may plant
the seed of any choice apple purchased in the
market and from the seedlings you will develop
an interesting variety of fruits, some of which may
seem to you better than any existing varieties.
We have already caught glimpses, in the out-
lines of my work already given, of the possibili-
ties of the development of various orchard fruits
as to size and flavor and other desirable qualities.
If you desire to try your hand at similar im-
provement either of the fruit now growing on your
ungrafted trees, or of that growing on cions of
improved varieties, it will require only reasonable
attention to the principles already outlined in
earlier chapters of this work, together with a fair
degree of patience and persistency, to insure some
measure of success.
[20]
ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
There is one additional hint that it might not
be amiss to emphasize. In selecting seed for
planting, it is desirable, of course, to select the
largest and best specimens. But it should be re-
called that the real test of quality in a tree is not
the production of exceptional individual fruits,
but the size of the average fruit that it bears.
Exceptional conditions of nutrition may cause
a single apple to grow very large on a limb that
as a rule produces only fruit of meager propor-
tions. Seedlings from this exceptional fruit do
not inherit the exceptional quality of their parent.
It is the germ plasm of the tree itself that
counts. Seed from a very small apple of a good
variety will produce better offspring than the seed
of a very much larger individual specimen of a
poor variety; so it is far better to select the poorest
fruit of a good variety rather than the best of an
ordinary variety.
This principle should be borne in mind in un-
dertaking plant development of any kind, not
merely with reference to orchard fruits. It is the
inherent properties of the plant organism as a
whole that will determine the average character
of the fruit.
BREEDING FOR QUALITY
As to the special qualities of fruit that call for
improvement, details, of course, differ with dif-
[21]
LUTHER BURBANK
ferent species. We have seen that sugar content
is an all-important item in the case of the prune;
and that sweetness and flavor and color are mat-
ters of importance in the case of the cherry. We
have also seen with what relative ease varieties
may be developed that surpass their parent forms
in these regards.
An interesting illustration of the possibility of
breeding new qualities into a fruit or accentuating
old ones, to which reference has not hitherto been
made, is manifested by one of my new cherries,
which, through selective breeding, became so
sweet that its sugar content acts as a preservative,
quite as in the case of the sugar prune.
These cherries, instead of decaying rapidly
after ripening, dry on the tree in a state of perfect
preservation. This particular feature is of no
present commercial value, but the case illustrates
the possibility of altering the inherent qualities
of a fruit, and of doing this in the course of a
few generations through systematic selection.
The same thing is illustrated by another of my
cherries which, by careful attention to a combina-
tion of qualities that would ordinarily be quite
overlooked, had its stem so strongly anchored to
the stone that when the fruit is picked the flesh
tears away leaving stem and stone on the tree.
Now it will be recalled that, in the case of the
[22]
ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
prune, it is a serious defect to have the fruit so
firmly attached to the stem that it clings to the
tree after ripening. A prune must drop of its own
accord when ripe or the prune dealer will have
none of it. But the quality that would make a
prune commercially worthless, when accentuated
in the cherry, becomes a mark of possible cxcep-
tional value. The cherry that leaves its stone on
the tree might conceivably fill a special purpose.
So this variation in the inherent properties of the
cherry might produce a new race of commercial
value to meet an exceptional need.
It requires but little ingenuity to suggest pos-
sible developments that would similarly give
added value to the fruits of various species.
For example, there is the matter of color in the
pear. Unlike most other fruits, this one, as every-
one knows, is for the most part lacking in the
brilliant color that purchasers of fruit in the
market usually find so attractive. But there is
no reason why pears of various brilliant and at-
tractive colors should not be developed just as
colored apples have been developed.
Our native crab apple is dull greenish brown
or dull red, and unattractive in color even when
ripe. Of course this is not the direct progenitor of
the cultivated apple, but it obviously belongs to
a closely related strain, and it shows us the apple
[23]
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sjjnsaa ayy Jo auo yfal
ayy yp auo fispulpso ay}
yim pajspajuoa sp ‘smoys
qy6i4 ayy yO ajdumxa ay}
sp ‘sulys pasojoo fizyoi4
ym sipad jo uojonp
-o1d ay} uz ‘daaamoy ‘pul
-juauniadxa uaaq spy YUDq
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-jp yons saai6 yo1ym 10]09
ay} paxov] jyupd jsour ay}
sof spy apad ay} O}40YI14
yng ‘papi sD siamo016
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-ap aq upd sD a61D] SD SI
‘sazja1ama 1ajjaq S}} Ul
‘apad fiupulpso AY L
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ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
in a state of nature and gives us a clue as to what
qualities of fruit are advantageous to the apple
itself, and what ones have been bred into the
stock to meet the demands of the fruit developer.
So the fact that the wild crab apple is dull in
color suggests that the variously pigmented coat
of the cultivated apple is an artificial product, not
primarily beneficial to the plant itself, that man
has developed through selection.
It is not unlikely that the relatively thin skin
of the cultivated apple, coincidentally developed,
makes pigmentation desirable, to protect the tis-
sues of the fruit from too much sunlight. The
fact that many apples redden where exposed to
the sun, and remain green where protected by
the shadow of a branch or leaf, suggests that such
is the case.
Be that as it may, the point I wish to emphasize
at the moment is that the pigmented coat of the
apple has been produced mostly by unconscious
artificial selection. There can be no doubt that
the pear could be similarly given a brightly col-
ored skin should anyone care to take the trouble
to make the experiment in selective breeding.
Indeed, a few varieties of partly red pears have
been developed, and have proved a valuable nov-
elty in the market. Other and better varieties,
variously tinted, should follow.
[25]
LUTHER BURBANK
It has been suggested that a globular or apple-
shaped pear with a short stem would be acceptable
to the packers because it would crate more com-
pactly and carry better than the ordinary pear.
But this would rob the fruit of one of its distinctive
characters, so'on the whole the change would
probably not be an improvement. In the matter
of size, also, it would appear that the pear, in its
best varieties, has attained a maximum develop-
ment.
To make it much larger would be detrimental,
as it would probably be torn from the tree by
the wind. Even now some varieties are so large
that they break away from the tree before ripen-
ing, and so these varieties are avoided. The
Beurre Clairgeau, one of the best of pears, is little
grown for this very reason.
But in matter of flavor there is still oppor-
tunity for indefinite variation. Some European
cultivators have recently produced remarkably
pleasing and varied flavors in this fruit. An illus-
tration of how the flavor of a fruit may be rad-
ically modified is furnished by my Apple Plum,
which, while retaining the characteristic attributes
of its race, curiously simulates the apple in the
matter of form and even in taste and texture.
Another instance is my Bartlett plum, which
out-Bartletts the Bartlett pear in its own peculiar
[26]
ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
quality and flavor. Yet others are the Pineapple
quince, which has the flavor of the pineapple it-
self, and the Sunberry, which has the exact flavor
of the blueberry intensified.
Corresponding modifications of the pear as well
as of all other fruits lie within reach of the patient
experimenter.
LEAVING OUT THE CoRE
But perhaps the most inviting field of all, in
connection with the possible development of or-
chard fruits, is that having to do not with the form
or texture or flavor of the pulp but with the seed
of the fruit.
Of course it must not be overlooked that, from
the standpoint of the fruit itself, or rather from
the standpoint of the tree on which it grows, the
seed is the only really essential part of the fruit.
All of the embellishment of juicy pulp and highly
pigmented skin is but the lure put forth by the
plant on behalf of the seed, in the interests of self-
preservation.
The really essential part of the entire structure
is but an infinitesimal cell lodged at the heart of
each kernel of the seed.
Indeed, we may go even one step further, with
the aid of the microscope, and say that the nucleus
of a single cell, born of the union of the nuclei of
two germ cells, is the really important part not
[27]
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‘sagdojaaap jup}d
aayjo Jo }4pd ay} uo uolj
-9a11p s1y} ul Yom yua]]29
-xa 10f fijzunjsoddo ]]138 $1
auay *SesDumi]9 1ap]09 sof
pajdppp sjonidp jo sal}
-a1ipa fo qyuauidojaaap ay}
ul pajuauiadxa spy yung
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ayy fiq paddyu aq 0} A071
24D sulosso]q ay} asnvIaq
fiyfajyo—fipspy jou st FH
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-yfip joai6 ay *paziid
Ajy6iy st joys auo pup
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p st joo}1dD aut
ood y ay.
——eoO CC
Dried Apricots
The fruit devel-
oper must consider
many things in producing
a new variety. In the case
of the apricot, evenness of
size and drying quality are
essential. The boxes of
dried apricots here shown
illustrate the _ attractive-
ness of a fruit in a per-
fected variety of al-
most ideal quality.
LUTHER BURBANK
merely of the fruit but of the tree on which it
grows.
For within the infinitesimal structure of the
nucleus, by the most mystifying of all Nature’s
feats of jugglery, are lodged those hereditary fac-
tors or determiners that will ultimately transmit
the traits of the ancestral tree to the tree of the
future.
In the widest sense it is true that the sole pur-
pose of the entire plant is to produce a certain
number of these germinal nuclei, each represent-
ing the union of a pollen grain with an ovule; each
carefully encased in the structure that we call a
seed; and each capable of reproducing, with sun-
dry modifications, the characteristics of the parent
plant, or, in a profounder view, the blended char-
acteristics of the entire ancestral race which the
plant represents.
When we consider the seed in this way it does
not seem strange that all the resources of Nature
should concentrate on the development of the
fruit structure in which the all-important seed or
cluster of seeds finds lodgment. And by the same
token it is comprehensible that Nature will hold
to the seed with the most unwavering persistency.
And so it is not strange that the plant experi-
menter should be able to alter the size and texture
and quality of the fruit pulp far more readily than
[30]
ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
he can modify the core or stone that lies at its
center.
Yet from man’s standpoint this inevitable cen-
tral structure, forming the heart of every orchard
fruit, is a conspicuous detriment. And it is alto-
gether desirable that fruits should be developed
in which the stony or fibrous covering of the seed
is eliminated, or in which the substance of the
seed itself has been substituted by juicy tissues.
Everyone knows that this much desired modifi-
cation has been effected, or all but effected, in the
case of the so-called navel orange. An accidentally
discovered mutant, doubtless a pathological speci-
men, was seized on by some keen-eyed observer,
and a race of seedless oranges was developed by
selection, and widely disseminated by grafting.
Also there are seedless grapes.
The reader will recall the long series of experi-
ments through which I was enabled, by taking
advantage of a similar malformation in a wild
European plum, to develop by hybridization and
selective breeding a race of stoneless plums.
Everyone knows, also, that there comes to us
from the tropics a familiar fruit, the banana, that
is seedless; although perhaps it is not so well
known that this fruit has lost its seed through
being propagated for long generations by division.
The precise steps through which this development
[31]
LUTHER BURBANK
has taken place in the case of the banana are not
matters of record. But its condition is similar to
that of the sugar cane and of the familiar horse-
radish in our gardens, both of which have been so
long propagated by division that they have aban-
doned the habit of seed formation. The banana
in its wild state was practically filled from end
to end with large, hard, bullet-like seeds or stones,
with just enough pulp surrounding them to make
the fruit attractive to birds and wild animals that
could not destroy the seeds. In this state it was
practically worthless to man. Had not a patho-
logical form appeared without seeds, which must
be cultivated solely by division, the banana would
be a practically useless fruit to-day.
And, for that matter, the potato furnishes us
with an even more familiar illustration of the re-
nunciation of the most primitive and important of
all plant functions, that of seed bearing, which
has developed under cultivation within the past
half century.
But among orchard fruits of temperate zones
the orange and the stoneless plum, as just in-
stanced, are the only examples of plants that have
been thus profoundly modified—although a seed-
less (but not coreless) apple and pear, in the ex-
perimental stage of development, have been an-
nounced. These examples, however, are stimu-
[32]
The Nectarine
The fruit here shown,
the nectarine, is much
less familiar than it de-
serves to be. It is in
reality a form of peach.
The botanists question
whether it is not specific-
ally identical with the or-
dinary cultivated peach.
It will appear in the text
that Mr. Burbank has
made remarkable experi-
ments in crossbreeding
and hybridizing the nec-
tarine with the peach
and with the almond.
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abpjupapp poob oO}
yl pasn spy yunvqing “IW
yoy} aas Ys AM *syuaul
--4adxa Buizipiiqhy Ul
juaspd a]qnaysap VD FI ayoul
ypy} anjzjonb =sDYy jinas
sly} ‘juaad fiup uy ‘pol
-ad ajoulat Dp yo supipul
ay} fig ‘uo1jpar}]nNoe jo fivm
ayy ul ‘7 ppd = uo0j}ua}}0
0} az1s abun] fijaaqjojat $}2
samo qimuf upd9}1auWy ay}
yoy) ajqussod Ss} VI -ajddp
-qpi9 asaury) ay} yy614 ayt
yo asoy} ‘gjdipqv419 UDI}
-saurpy ayy moys 1/a1
ay} JD saunby ay
ajddvqnv.i;) 2UL
ON SPECIFIC NEEDS
lative. They show that the possibility of co-
operating with Nature is almost limitless; and it is
hardly to be doubted that the plant experimenter
of the not distant future will carry out the process
of making all our orchard fruits seedless and
coreless.
As I said before, this is doubtless the most im-
portant opening that presents itself for the fruit
developer. It is a field in which there is room for
all and the allurements of which should prove in-
viting to a vast number of workers.
—When you work with fruit
trees you are making perma-
nent records—reaching out
your hands to future genera-
tions—erecting a monument
that will remain long after you
are gone.
Making Over An Old Orchard
Countless farms and dooryards of the United States have
orchard trees in larger or smaller number that are practically
useless. These can be made over, by proper grafting, so that they
bear the finest varieties of fruits. The picture illustrates
the way of rehabitating an old apple tree by grafting
all of its larger limbs. The tree is thus entirely
transformed, and may come to bear
fruit of the most delicious quality.
PRACTICAL ORCHARD PLANS
AND METHODS
How To BEGIN AND CARRY ON THE WoRK
HAT kind of tree is that, Mr. Burbank?”
Seldom does an amateur visit my
experiment farms without asking this
question. And very commonly I am led to reply:
“Why, it is hardly fair to speak of that as a
tree; that is a concentrated prune orchard. If I
were to name all the varieties of fruit that are
growing on the branches from that single trunk, it
would sound like reciting the names from an or-
chardist’s catalog. Nearly all my important
experiments in developing a particular variety of
plum are made, at one stage or another, in these
tree-colonies.”
And when my visitor, observing now on closer
inspection that practically every branch shows evi-
dence of having been grafted, inquires what will
be done next season, I explain that a fair propor-
tion of the present branches will be cut away and
| Vo.tumeE I[V—Cuapter II]
LUTHER BURBANK
grafts from other seedlings put in their place for
further tests.
The usefulness of a tree as _.e basis of further
experiments is not finished by any means when it
has once been covered by grafted cions. The same
process may be practised over and over.
Doubtless no other observation made by the
average amateur visitor is matter for greater sur-
prise than this utilization of single trees for the
carrying out of vast numbers of experiments. The
utility of the method, in the saving of both land
and the experimenter’s time, is altogether obvious
ence attention is called to it. Yet relatively few,
even among professional fruit growers, have hith-
erto gauged the possibilities of the method.
Of course the average visitor who inspects my
gardens has no thought of becoming an experi-
menter on a large scale, and hence would not have
occasion to practise multiple grafting and regraft-
ing on any such scale as that employed at Santa
Rosa and Sebastopol. But I call particular atten-
tion to this matter of fruit-tree grafting, because
there is a lesson in it not merely for the profes-
sional fruit grower but for tens of thousands of
persons scattered across the length and breadth of
the country who have in their gardens a few fruit
trees, at present of no apparent value, that might
be made to bear in abundance.
[38]
A Box of
Seedlings
The first step, of
course, in rehabilitat-
ing an orchard, if new
varieties are sought, is the
planting of seedlings and
the proper care of them,
which has already been
described in a preceding
volume. This picture
shows sprinkling the box
of seedlings with sulphur
in order to prevent
damping off.
LUTHER BURBANK
Moreover, there are other thousands who have
on their farms neglected orchards, run riot with
weeds and bringing no monetary return whatever,
which might be made the most productive and val-
uable portions-of the entire acreage.
And in each case the grafting of the cions of
good varieties of fruit on the old and otherwise
worthless stock is the key to the entire situation.
OLp Trees Mave YouNG
We shall have occasion in the successive chap-
ters of the present volume to examine in detail the
methods of cultivation and possibilities of im-
provement of the different orchard fruits. Here
it may be of service to take a brief general view of
the subject. And at the outset I wish to emphasize
the possibility of making over the orchard mate-
rial which is now in hand, so to speak, and which
is being so sadly neglected.
Reports from all over the country tell the same
story. In Ohio, for example, according to the re-
port of experts of the Agricultural Station, there
are thousands of acres of idle orchards. The
product of apples—the chief orchard fruit—has
fallen to less than a fourth of what it was a gen-
eration ago. Apple trees themselves are about
half as numerous as they were; and this implies
that those that remain are only half as productive
as the trees of twenty-five or thirty years ago.
[40]
ON PRACTICAL PLANS
Such a record, coupled with the fact of an ever-
increasing demand for orchard fruits, seems al-
most incomprehensible. Yet similar reports might
be had from numberless other regions where fruit
production was formerly a more or less important
industry.
But fortunately the facts of the situation are
now being called to the attention of the general
public, in particular by the workers at the agricul-
tural experiment stations. Bulletins are being
issued that call attention to the possibilities of
rejuvenating the old orchards, and in many re-
gions results of this work are being manifested in
the restoration of abandoned orchards. In one
county in Ohio, in a recent season, 117 rejuvenated
orchards added more than fifty thousand bushels
to the apple crop.
“In several cases,” says the Ohio report, “a net
profit of $400 per acre has been secured from an
abandoned orchard.”
The report continues: “It is like reaping where
one did not sow, to bring one of these orchards
into its own again. An investment in one of these
orchards is better than gold mine stock, for there
is no ‘luck’ about it. If there is any risk about
operations of this sort, it is because of lack of busi-
ness capacity and industry. To take a neglected
orchard and bring it back to usefulness does not
[41]
LUTHER BURBANK
require much capital except in brain and muscle,
but it is an achievement worth while.”
An achievement worth while, the renovation of
an old orchard, or even the rejuvenation of a
single tree, certainly is. I can gauge something
of the growing recognition of this fact from the
ever-increasing number of letters that come to me
from all parts of the world asking my opinion or
advice as to the possibility of restoration to use-
fulness of trees that their owners not long since
regarded as worthless.
And I am usually able to assure the questioners
with a good deal of confidence that if they go about
it in the right way they will not merely restore
trees to their former level of productivity, but may
make them producers of fruit in such abundance
and of such quality as quite to outclass their orig-
inal record.
HOUSECLEANING IN THE TREETOPS
I need not here enter into details as to the exact
methods of operation through which such restora-
tion and rejuvenation of old orchard trees may be
brought about. Such details can be given to better
advantage in the chapters that deal with individ-
ual fruits. But there are a few general principles
applicable to the entire class of fruit trees that
may be briefly outlined.
First and foremost, perhaps, is the matter of
[42]
A Row of Plum
Seedlings
It will be seen
that some of these
seedlings have outstripped
the others in the matter ef
growth, and in luxuriance
of foliage. Experience
has shown that seedlings
that thus start out well
are likely to continue
their relatively rapid
growth and to make far
better trees than the
stunted ones beside them.
A knowledge of the quali-
ties of the seedling en-
ables Mr. Burbank to se-
lect at an early stage the
ones that are to be pre-
served, thus making ez-
periments of an elaborate
character, on a rela-
tively small land
area.
be a
Sous
ee.
‘F
eS
~~ 4
<
= i
-
a
wea
LUTHER BURBANK
cutting away the surplus growth of half dead twigs
and branches that a neglected tree is sure to ex-
hibit. These serve to distract the energies of the
tree, if the phrase be permitted, and even though
they may multiply the number of fruit buds, they
will greatly minimize the average size of the fruit
itself.
Regardless of quality, fruit trees generally can-
not bear to advantage unless properly pruned.
The process may best be carried out late in the
winter or very early in the spring. It is well, as
a matter of course, to make clean, sharp ampu-
tations, so that the bark of the limb below the
cut is never torn. No general rule can be given
as to the amount of pruning for any species; much
less for any individual tree. But it may be taken
for granted that the amateur will usually err on
the side of pruning too little rather than too much.
Where small twigs are cut away by the pruning
knife, it is not necessary to treat the stump; but
larger branches, requiring the use of the saw,
should have the stump covered with hot wax or
paint to protect the injured tissues from the
weather during the period of healing. This should
not be done immediately, but should be delayed
for a week or more until evaporation has dried
the tissues sufficiently to allow absorption of the
protective material used.
[44]
ON PRACTICAL PLANS
In connection with this removal of supple-
mentary branches, which is in effect a sort of
housecleaning operation, it will be well to scrape
off the rough bark of trunk and limb wherever
it scales in such a way as to afford snug retreats
for insects. And blemishes of a more important
order, such as knotholes and decayed surfaces
where limbs have been cut away or broken off in
the past, should be carefully excavated, all un-
sound tissue removed, and the cavity filled with
ordinary Portland cement or concrete.
The latter process has been variously charac-
terized as tree carpentry and tree dentistry.
Both terms are more or less suggestive of the
work achieved, regardless of names. The opera-
tion may result in prolonging indefinitely the life
of a valuable tree that would otherwise soon have
decayed beyond restoration.
The trunk and branches of the tree having been
put in order, thought should be given to its root
system. The casual observer is likely to forget
that only about half the tree is visible, and that
the aerial half is not fundamentally more impor-
tant than the subterranean moiety. Yet it is ob-
vious that the root system furnishes the all-im-
portant source of supply of moisture and mineral
matter, lacking which growth could not take place
at all, let alone fruit bearing.
[45]
LUTHER BURBANK
Of course we cannot get at the branches of the
roots to renovate them as we have renovated the
aerial branches, nor would they require the same
kind of attention if we could.
There is no danger that a plant will have too
many rooilets, for these are the mouths that reach
out into the nutrient earth and take up the chem-
icals in solution that are part of the materials for
the building of branch and leaf and flower and
fruit alike. But there is danger that the root sys-
tem may not develop in the best manner, and there
is obvious need that the soil into which the roots
penetrate should not be depleted of its nourishing
properties.
As to the manner of development of the root
system, of course it is too late to make radical
changes if we are dealing with an old tree. With
young trees just starting growth or recently trans-
planted much may be done, as will be pointed out
presently. But with the old tree all that can be
accomplished is to see that the root already in is
being given a fair chance.
ATTENTION TO THE COMMISSARY DEPARTMENT
To this end the ground about the tree should
be cultivated with plow or spade, even at the
hazard of destroying a certain number of super-
ficial rootlets. The grass and weeds that have
been permitted to spring up in the neglected or-
[46]
A Bunch of Selected Seedlings
This picture shows a bunch of selected seedlings that
have been carefully dug in the proving ground and are now
ready for transportation and final disposition. It will be seen that
care has been taken to dig up the entire root, without injury.
Seedlings thus carefully transplanted will lose very
little in the process, and are almost sure to
continue growth if properly cultivated
after transplantation.
LUTHER BURBANK
chard sap the ground and take the nourishment
that the tree imperatively needs. But if the sur-
face soil is turned under this vegetable matter will
in itself. constitute a fertilizer. Unless the soil is
unusually rich this should be supplemented with
artificial fertilizers, of which nitrates, phosphates
and complete mineral fertilizers often appear to
have the best effect in rejuvenating an old orchard.
In case the soil is a sandy loam, subject to rapid
leaching, it may be desirable to sow a so-called
“cover crop” to prevent the too rapid washing
away of the plant foods in the rainy season. If a
leguminous crop is grown, such as clover, crimson
clover, cow peas, or vetch, these crops will in them-
selves add to the nitrogen of the soil, as their roots
have the power of taking this from the air. But
it is urged by some eastern orchardists that care
should be taken to avoid too much nitrogen. The
roots of the tree reach down to rich subterranean
sources that are likely to be well supplied with
nitrogen, because the nitrates are very soluble and
are pretty rapidly leached or filtered into the sub-
soil.
After preliminary treatment it has been found
in many states best to sow a crop of clover, often
with other perennial grasses, as a permanent crop,
which should be cut and all material left on the
ground for the protection and support of the or-
[48]
ON PRACTICAL PLANS
chard. This has been found to be an extremely
profitable method both in the old neglected and
in the new orchards of New England and in the
orchards of the northwestern Pacific coast. A
small space about the trunk of the tree should be
kept free from grass.
The experts of the Indiana Experiment Station
recommend as a fertilizer, for soil of fair natural
fertility and where a leguminous nitrogen-gather-
ing cover crop such as just suggested may be
grown, the additional use of a fertilizer having the
following formula: “A thousand to fifteen hundred
pounds per acre of a mixture containing one part
(100 pounds) each of ground bone, acid phosphate
and muriate of potash. On soils that are some-
what exhausted, 125 pounds nitrate of soda may
be added in addition.
“In order to get the greatest returns from this
fertilizer it should be thoroughly worked into the
soil. This can be accomplished very well by ap-
plying it to the surface just before plowing. The
plowing and working of the ground will get the
fertilizer pretty thoroughly incorporated, and the
tree will soon show the beneficial effect of its pres-
ence. Hoe the ground often and keep it cultivated
until midsummer, then sow a cover crop that will
protect the ground until it is turned under the fol-
lowing spring.”
[49]
LUTHER BURBANK
After these reformatory measures have been
carried out, it remains to guard the trees against
the attacks of insects with some protective spray.
The particular insect or fungus-destroying mix-
ture required will of course depend upon the indi-
vidual case. The Bordeaux mixture is doubtless
used more than any other single spray for fungus
diseases and for the codling moth in apples. A
lime-salt-sulphur solution is the general mixture
for San Jose scale. In general, it should be re-
called that spraying is a preventive measure rather
than a cure. Bordeaux mixture, for example, will
prevent the appearance of the fungus disease com-
monly called scab. The attacks of the codling
moth may be met in the same manner; but as there
is a second crop of these moths, another spraying
may be necessary later in the season.
BATTLING THE PEsTS
I should add that as to this matter of fighting
plant diseases and pests with the spray, as also in
the matter of the renovation of neglected orchards,
I must offer advice rather at second hand. My
own orchards, as a matter of course, have not been
neglected. While my orchards are cultivated
thoroughly, so that a weed is seldom seen, very
little fertilizer is used and rarely any spraying, as
my object is to obtain varieties that are immune
to fungus and insect diseases, and which will
[50]
Nursery Stock Awaiting Final Transplantation
Here bunches of seedlings such as those shown in the
preceding illustration have been set out temporarily en masse
to keep them in condition until time can be found for their indi-
In cold weather and in dry soil the
vidual transplantation.
be preserved almost indefinitely,
thus
may
seedlings
retaining their vitality and being ready to take
on growth when transplanted individually.
LUTHER BURBANK
thrive in ordinary soils and under ordinary sys-
tems of cultivation. No pampered pets are offered
from my grounds for general culture.
I would urge any orchardist who operates on a
large scale to consider the matter of selecting as
far as possible varieties of fruit trees that are more
or less immune to disease, rather than to depend
on the at best somewhat precarious method of
warding off the enemies by spraying. Prevention
is better than cure with plants no less than with
human beings. But of course the renovator of an
old orchard, whose task is at the moment under
consideration, must work with the materials sup-
plied him and cannot ignore the fungus and insect
pests that attack his trees; although by dint of
proper grafting he may hope presently to trans-
form the character of the trees in such a way as
to give them partial immunity. The orchardist of
the future will have still better ones in these re-
gards.
PLANNING A NEw ORCHARD
So much for the renovation of the old orchard.
I have spoken thus at length on this aspect of the
subject because of its obvious importance, and
because it aims at the correction of a widespread
condition and has to do with the possible restora-
tion of properties in the aggregate of enormous
value.
[52]
The Choice of Seedlings
To economize space, seedlings may be grown close
together during the first few months, until the individuals
have revealed their qualities. Then, of course, the weaklings will
be weeded out and room given for the thrifty ones to con-
tinue growth, This picture illustrates the difference in
growth—notably in sturdiness of stem—between
two seedlings from the same lot of seeds.
It is obvious that the orchardist will
preserve the one at the left, as
the much likelier fruit-
producer.
LUTHER BURBANK
It takes time to grow a tree, and it is peculiarly
fortunate that the would-be fruit grower can se-
cure almost anywhere an abandoned orchard that
may almost immediately be restored to a condition
of productivity. But of course the orchardist who
wishes to operate on an extensive scale will not
be content with the renovation of an old orchard,
however lucrative that process may prove, but will
wish to produce a new orchard that may lack the
defects of the old one.
The ancient tree made over will still retain, in
such important matters as height and spread of
limb, the evidence that it really belongs to a past
generation, however insistently the fruit that its
grafted branches bear may seem to belie the evi-
dence.
But the trees of the new orchard may be trained
in accordance with modern ideas; and it is not to
be denied that ideas as to tree pedagogy have
changed as rapidly in recent years as have the best
conceptions of human pedagogy.
Take the very important matter of height of
tree as a case in point. Not long ago the orchard-
ist, in developing a young tree, was careful to see
that it was trained in the nursery so that its lowest
branches were several feet from the ground.
But the well-informed orchardist of today
heads his tree in such a way that the bearing
[54]
Selecting Among Peach Seedlings
Here two peach seedlings are shown between which it
may be somewhat difficult to decide. The one at the right is
somewhat larger and sturdier, but that at the left is much better
formed, its branches being upright, growing at the ideal angle of
about forty-five degrees. The latter will therefore make better trees,
but the one at the right has qualities of color of stem, and
of sturdiness that may make its preservation desirable,
Two quite different varieties of peach may be
expected from these two seedlings
of the same stock.
LUTHER BURBANK
branches start only eighteen inches or two feet
from the ground.
Where formerly high ladders were required to
pluck the fruit, a modern orchardist, for a good
many years after his trees are in bearing, can stand
on the ground and reach the main bulk of the
fruit; and even that which falls is not mutilated
and bruised as it used to be. Also the trees are
much less apt to be broken or blown over by the
wind.
And in this I am not referring to such “freak”
trees as, for example, my little bush-like quinces,
scarcely waist high yet almost breaking under
the weight of mammoth fruits. I am speaking of
the commercial orchard, and have in mind in par-
ticular the apple tree, because it is with regard to
this tree that the most conspicuous transforma-
tion has been effected. Plum trees and peach trees
were never very large, but it used to be taken for
granted that the apple tree should be of gigantic
proporticns; so the half dwarf trees on which the
best apples of today are grown might seem to the
casual observer to belong to a different family of
plants from their progenitors.
GAUGING YouR CLIMATE
As to other desirable qualities, much depends
upon the location of the orchard and the market
that the orchardist has in view.
[56]
ON PRACTICAL PLANS
It goes without saying that the varieties to be
selected must be of a character adapted to the
climate and soil of the chosen region. As to this,
the restrictions imposed by Nature are more or
less familiar to every fruit grower. In general,
you may judge to a certain extent from observa-
tion of what is already grown in your neighbor-
hood as to what kinds of trees will thrive there.
The chief restrictions are those imposed by con-
ditions of temperature, and of course temperature
is influenced not merely by the latitude but by dis-
tance above the sea level and the neighborhood of
large bodies of water.
The presence of moisture in the air has a pro-
tecting influence, chiefly in that it prevents radia-
tion of heat at night. Every orchardist knows that
the danger from frost increases in proportion as
the night is clear. The now familiar method of
fighting frost by burning brush or oil supplies
direct heat, but also supplements this by filling
the air with smoke, which retards the radiation
of heat.
It is familiarly known that seaboard regions
have much milder winters than inland regions of
the same latitude.
Again, inland regions of low altitude, such as
the Mississippi Valley, may be adapted to the
growth of a fruit that would inevitably winter-
[57]
LUTHER BURBANK
kill if grown on the high plateaus of Wyoming.
In general, it may be said that no region at
higher altitude than about six thousand feet is
adapted for fruit growing.
In putting out catalogs of new fruit it is
often desirable to state the minimum temperature
that a new production will stand. I have done
this, for example, in announcing my spineless cac-
tus. As to average annual temperature, it may be
convenient to recall that there is likely to be a
mean annual difference of three degrees for each
hundred miles of latitude. Thus, for example, the
mean temperature at the southern line of Iowa
will be found to be about three degrees lower than
the mean temperature at the northern line; and
this difference might, in case of a given fruit, make
it folly to plant in northern Iowa a fruit that might
live in the southern part of the state.
As already pointed out, however, one of the
main objects of the plant developer today is to
produce hardy varieties, and doubtless it will be
possible in the future to grow most varieties of or-
chard fruits in regions that are now regarded as
lying wholly beyond the northern limits of their
possible culture.
Stupyinc YouR MARKET
Of course the proximity of the market is an
item cf chief importance. Yet the experience of
[58]
Combining Young
Orchard and
Berry Field
This picture illus-
trates the possibility
of economizing space and
labor by planting vines of
the blackberry or rasp-
berry between the trees of
a young apple orchard.
The vines come into bear-
ing and produce a lucra-
tive crop during the years
when the apple trees are
making their early growth,
and are as yet un-
productive.
LUTHER BURBANK
the California plant developer may be cited as
showing that nearness to market is by no means
an ahsolute essential. For of course it is well
known that the California fruits are now chiefly
grown for shipment to the Atlantic seaboard. So
nearness to a railroad is even more important, as
hauling fruit for any great distance before it is
packed for eastern shipment is a great detriment
to its shipping and keeping qualities.
Except in a few cases, like that of the prune,
it is always necessary for the California plant
developer to consider the shipping quality of his
fruit. A fruit to be shipped a long distance must
be of firm flesh, a good color, and a reasonably
tough skin. And especially it should be uniform
in size and of such shape as to admit of econom-
ical packing. Moreover, it should ripen at a season
when the same kind of fruit is not abundant in
the distant market.
So it may happen that a fruit otherwise valu-
able may lack this essential marketing quality,
and hence must be avoided. This is the reason
why my Abundance plum is not so popular in Cal-
ifornia as it is in the Eastern States, as it will not
stand a long shipment so well as other varieties.
To the eastern fruit grower this is not important,
as he lives near the market. But from the Califor-
nia standpoint, such plums as the Wickson, the
[60]
ON PRACTICAL PLANS
Burbank, the Formosa and the Climax, all of which
are excellent shippers, are generally preferred.
The advantages of entering the market at a
particular season are illustrated by the Burbank
cherry, which ripens so early that it reaches the
eastern markets when almost no other fruit is on
hand. The fact that these cherries often bring
two or three times the market price to be secured
a few weeks later shows the practical importance
of this detail.
Another seemingly minor point that the pro-
spective orchardist should not overlook is the
question of the color of the varieties of fruit he is
to select. Color is one of the most important char-
acteristics of the fruit from the market man’s
standpoint. The purchaser at the fruit stand will
very generally pick out the highly-colored fruit
without considering its quality. The prospective
fruit raiser should bear this in mind in selecting
his stock.
THE OrcHARD SITE
In dealing with an old orchard the fruit grower
must obviously take the trees as he finds them.
But in developing a new orchard he should give
very careful attention to the exact topographical
conditions. The matter of drainage of the soil is
important, and also the question of exposure to
the sunlight and wind.
[61]
LUTHER BURBANK
If your orchard site slopes toward the south,
and does not lie in the shade of mountains nor
where it is subject to the equalizing influence of a
large body of water, the trees are likely to be so
stimulated by the nearly perpendicular rays of the
sun as to blossom before the time of the last frost.
Early blossoming might at first thought be consid-
ered an advantage; but in point of fact it is a gen-
eral rule that plants which blossom early ripen
their fruit late, whereas those that blossom late
are usually early ripeners. The obvious explana-
tion is that the trees that flower late and ripen
early have had to adapt themselves to short sea-
sons.
The wisdom of their course is emphasized
when we see the early blossoms of trees on a
southern slope cut off by a late frost, while trees
otherwise situated in the neighborhood have not
yet come to blooming time.
The danger of entire loss from late frosts may
be obviated, however, by the selection of varieties
that will mature fruit even after the blossoms have
been frozen. I have developed such varieties of
fruit trees in a number of instances. There are
also varieties that have a long blooming season,
and these may be depended upon to put forth new
blossoms even if the earlier ones were blasted.
But in general it is desirable to select a variety of
[62]
Orchard and Vine
Field
This picture shows
a nearer view of the
orchard shown in the pre-
ceding picture, the first
view being taken when the
apple trees were two years
old. It will be seen that
the apple trees are now
attaining a fair growth,
yet that there is still am-
ple room for the berries.
If the apple trees are of
the modern type, and are
kept well pruned, _ the
combination of vine, field
and orchard may be per-
manent, provided the ap-
ple trees are not planted
too close together.
LUTHER BURBANK
tree that naturally blooms late enough to avoid
these frosts.
This is especially important in view of what
has just been said about frosts waylaying trees
on a southern exposure, because precisely such ex-
posure is of value at the other end of the season,
to hasten the ripening of the fruit. This is not
only important in the case of fruits designed to
meet an early city market, but it applies to many
varieties that tend to ripen late in the fall and
which thus may suffer from the early frosts of
autumn.
It should be recalled that the warm southern
exposure also tends to take the moisture from
the soil early in the season, so varieties planted
in such a location should be able to resist drought.
Trees planted on a hillside will probably have
natural drainage. Otherwise it may be necessary
to drain the soil with tile or with open ditches, or
else to select varieties of fruit that are known to
thrive in a moist, cool soil. Such varieties must
necessarily have an unusually large leaf surface
and shallow root system. For this reason they
should not be placed where they are subject to
heavy winds.
What may be called air drainage is sometimes
quite as important as water drainage. Cold air
flows down the hillsides and settles in the valleys.
[64]
A Typical,
Regrafted,
Rehabilitated
Apple Orchard
The trees here
shown were not orig-
inally of the best varieties,
but by rigorous pruning
and regrafting, they have
been brought to approzi-
mately ideal shape, and
made to bear fruit in pro-
fusion of the finest
quality.
Early-Bearing Peaches
The peaches here shown illustrate the possibility of
remodeling an old peach orchard by grafting. This bunch of
luscious fruit was borne on a cion only two years old, grafted ona
tree that otherwise would have borne fruit of inferior qual-
ity or no fruit at all. There are thousands of aban-
doned peach orchards that might be rejuve-
nated by proper grafting.
ON PRACTICAL PLANS
So the bottom of a valley is a very poor place to
plant fruit; except, indeed, in certain canyons or
gulches where there is a steady current of air in
motion throughout the night. In general, the or-
chard site should be on a hilltop or hillside, or at
least at an elevation above the lowest land sur-
face in the neighborhood, unless the valleys are
either naturally or artificially well drained.
Without attempting further details in this
place, enough has been said to show that there are
almost numberless points to be considered by the
up-to-date fruit grower in the development of a
new orchard. What has been said will supply
clues that the thoughtful orchardist may readily
follow up. As to the specific fruits, further details,
with particular reference to the practical aspects
of the subject, will be given in succeeding chap-
ters.
—In several cases,’ says the
Ohio report, “a net profit of
$400 per acre has been secured
from an abandoned orchard.”
Mr. Burbank’s 400
The picture gives a direct glimpse into the foliage of the
large cherry tree at Sebastopol on which Mr. Burbank has
grafted more than four hundred different varieties of cherries. Prae-
tically every branch here shown bears a different kind of
cherry, and nearly all are of superlative quality. A
single tree thus treated becomes in itself an orchard,
DOUBLING THE PRODUCTIVENESS
OF THE CHERRY
More AND BETTER CHERRIES
HEN I chance to see mention in the
\ \V newspaper headings of the doings of
New York’s celebrated Four Hundred
I am sometimes reminded of the Four Hundred
of Sebastopol.
The particular Sebastopol that I have in mind
is the place where my fruit farm is located, about
seven miles from Santa Rosa. By the Four Hun-
dred of Sebastopol I mean a very aristocratic
colony, comprising four hundred families of pedi-
greed cherries, that are colonized on a single big
tree in my cherry orchard.
I could speak only from vaguest hearsay as to
the lineage of New York’s aristocratic coterie, but
may claim to discuss the pedigrees of the Four
Hundred of Sebastopol with final authority. And
I can vouch for the blueness of blood, so to speak,
of every one of them.
[VotumME [V—Cuapter III]
LUTHER BURBANK
That there are about four hundred families in
my patrician cherry colony is a matter of acci-
dent, quite uninfluenced by any thought of imita-
tion. It chances that year by year the process of
elimination about balances the process of addition
to the family, and the census of the colony is not
greatly altered.
Reference has been made in various earlier
chapters to the origin and development of the
patrician cherries. They are closely related as
to their remote ancestry, as I suppose is the case
with the members of every other aristocracy. Yet,
as we have seen, the ancestral traits are variously
blended in the different families, and there is
notable diversity among them as to individual
traits. Some of them bear fruit that is vividly
red in color, others fruit that is pallid; and there
are corresponding divergences as to flavor, free-
dom of stone, sugar content, and all the rest of
the complex characteristics of a well-bred cherry.
Of course these qualities are variously re-
combined in the progeny of each new generation.
So I can never tell what surprise is in store for me
when I raise seedlings from the fruit.
And there are always new additions to the
colony that will only come into bearing next sea-
son or the season after and reveal whai they hold
in store.
[70]
Some of the 400 Come to Judgment
This picture shows a few of the several hundred varieties
of cherries plucked on the same day from the same tree, and
laid out for Mr. Burbank’s examination and selection. As new com-
binations are effected each season through cross-pollenization,
there are always unique varieties to be found on the tree
each June-time, and these new varieties, may, of
course, be perpetuated by grafting.
LUTHER BURBANK
Thus it chanced that in the season of 1908 I
found among the cherries one that bore quite the
largest fruit I have ever seen; fruit, moreover, of
the most inviting color and having qualities of
flesh to match. Cions from this new stock will
be sent out and will in due course colonize many
an orchard with a new variety of fruit that is sure
to find great favor.
But if I thus from time to time have pleasant
surprises, I am also too often chagrined to find
among my patrician cherries offspring that seem
unworthy. But of course one hears of black sheep
among the scions of even the noblest families, so
it is not surprising that the blueblood cherries of
Sebastopol offer no exception.
And as the black member of any human family
is always held up as a warning example, I have
thought that I might in the same way make the
black sheep of my cherry colony serve a useful
purpose by explaining somewhat in detail the rea-
son for their appearance.
In so doing I shall be able, perhaps, to make a
somewhat clearer exposition than has hitherto
been attempted of certain aspects of heredity that
are peculiarly important from the standpoint of
the practical plant developer.
Uprer CASE QUALITIES
We have learned something in earlier chapters
[72]
South American Cherries
Much of Mr. Burbank’s success has been due, as the reader
is aware, to the hybridizing of plants brought from different
geographical localities. This picture shows a South American cherry
that has been used in the course of the crossbreeding and hybridizing
experiments through which Mr. Burbank’s many varieties of perfected
cherries have been developed. It will be seen that the South
American cherry differs quite widely in appearance as
well as in the foliage from the ordinary
cherry of the northern hemisphere,
LUTHER BURBANK
about unit characters and the way in which they
are blended or mosaiced together to make up the
personality of any individual plant.
It will be recalled that where the two parents
of a given individual have opposing qualities as
regards a given characteristic—where one, let us
say, is black and the other white—it is quite the
rule for one quality to dominate the other in such
a way that the offspring precisely resembles, as
regards that quality, the dominant parent—in this
case the black one—and resembles the other par-
ent seemingly not at all. And we have learned
also that the latent or recessive character that is
thus subordinated—in this case whiteness—will
reappear in a certain proportion of the offspring
of the succeeding generation.
Now, it has been found convenient by recent
experimenters to adopt a graphic method that will
make the printed accounts of their experiments
more readily comprehensible. The expedient in
question is the simple one of using a capital letter
to designate the dominant factor of any pair of
unit characters, and a corresponding lower case
or small letter to designate the recessive factor.
Letting “D,” for example, stand for the domi-
nant trait of blackness in the illustration just
given, and “d” for the recessive trait of white-
ness, we may concisely state the facts of inher-
[74]
The Cataline
Cherry
This cherry grows
in the Catalina Islands,
Southern California. It
defect is the very large
stone and the very small
relative quantity of pulp.
Probably, however, the
fruit may be improved
by selective breeding.
LUTHER BURBANK
itance as just noted in the following formula:
Parent “D” being mated with parent “d,” the
offspring, whether few or many, bear in each in-
dividual case in their germ plasm the factors “D”
and “d” in combination. But if two of these off-
spring are interbred, there will be a splitting up
of the factors and re-combination in such wise that
in any average group of four of their progeny the
result will be this: One member that is pure dom-
inant (DD), two members that are mixed dom-
inants (Dd), and one member that is pure re-
cessive (dd). The DD individual is “homozygous”
for dominant factors and will breed true to black-
ness. The dd individual is homozygous for the
recessive factors and will breed true to whiteness.
The two Dd individuals are heterozygous for the
color factors, and whereas they are individually
black their offspring will repeat the formala 1 DD
+ 2 Dd + 1 dd; they will reproduce, in other
words, the conditions of the second filial genera-
tion itself as just analyzed.
Let me re-state all this, using only the letters,
to show the convenience of the formula and at the
same time to fix it in memory: D mated with d
in the first generation gives us Dd + Dd + Dd,
etc., in the second generation. Dd mated with Dd
gives us in the third generation 1DD + 2Dd +
1dd.
[76]
Some Curious Short-Stemmed Hybrids
These black cherries, it will be observed, have the pecu-
liarity of growing on exceedingly short stems. Such variations
as this are observed in many hybrids, and of course they give oppor-
tunity for selection, through which permanent varieties are
developed. Shortness of stem, however, in the case of
the cherry is a merit that must not be carried too
far, lest the cherries crowd each other
too much in the bunches,
LUTHER BURBANK
If this is not absolutely clear, you will do well
to re-read the above paragraphs, and it is quite
worth your while to consider the matter somewhat
attentively.
If you have only theoretical interest in plant
breeding you should be concerned in the matter
no less personally, because the same laws of hered-
ity that are about to be illustrated apply with full
force to all life, including human offspring.
If, on the other hand, you have thought of un-
dertaking some experiments in plant developing,
which I hope is the case, it is doubly important
that you should get the full significance of these
simple formule. Like other formule, they are
devised solely for convenience in promulgating
ideas. As used in the following illustration, they
will make it possible to present vividly the case of
our black-sheep cherry, and through this to clarify
a large number of obscure cases that must prove
very puzzling to the novitiate in plant develop-
ment.
EXPLAINING THE BLACK SHEEP
Let us now stake our way, as it were, with the
aid of the upper-case and lower-case letters, along
the line of a series of plant experiments through
which a certain patrician cherry was developed.
To avoid complications and to escape getting into
a tangle of ideas and a maze of letters, let us con-
[78]
ON THE CHERRY
sider only a single quality in detail, keeping in the
background of our minds the idea that the actual
experimenter is at all times considering almost
innumerable other qualities as well.
The one quality that we will consider at the
moment is, let us say, the matter of size. We wish,
for some special purpose, to develop a cherry that
shall be a giant among cherries, yet which of
course shall combine size with quality.
Now we have at hand a cherry that bears very
large fruit of poor quality. We have also at hand
a tree that bears small fruit of delicious quality.
Our first step will be to transfer pollen from the
stamens of one of these to the pistils of the other.
We carefully mark the limbs bearing the hybrid-
ized flowers; and subsequently we gather the fruit
and save the seed and in due course plant it and
nurture the seedlings by methods hitherto fully
explained.
So when a year and a half has passed from
the inauguration of our experiment we have a
row of hybrid seedlings ready for grafting.
The one thought that is uppermost in our mind,
for purposes of the present exposition, is that of
securing a plant that will bear fruit of large size.
Now we have learned that there are certain cor-
relations of parts that will enable the plant ex-
perimenter to predict, from the quality of the
[79]
LUTHER BURBANK
seedling, a good many things about the quality of
the fruit it will subsequently bear. Utilizing this
knowledge, we pass along the row of seedlings
and select from among the thousand or five thou-
sand individuals the ten or twelve that seem to
us to give greatest promise. Nor at this particular
stage of the development is the selection very diffi-
cult, for the first generation hybrids usually show
no very great tendency to variation. That ten-
dency is revealed in subsequent generations, as
we have seen.
In point of fact, as a moment's reflection will
tell us, the seedlings before us are really all of one
quality as regards the particular characteristic of
their innate tendency to bear large or small fruit.
One of their parents bore large fruit; the other
bore smali fruit. If, then, we assume that here, as
in many other cases of plant breeding, the quality
of largeness is dominant to the quality of small-
ness, it may be expected that all the hybrids of
the first generation will tend to bear large fruit.
If, introducing our convenient system of sym-
bols, we designate the dominant quality of big-
ness with the letter B, and the recessive quality
of smallness with b, we may designate the mem-
bers of the hybrid generation as all being mixed
dominants, each bearing the factors Bb. This
means that the factor B dominates the factor b,
[80]
Botan and Black Giants, Side by Side
The two types of cherries are shown here together, that
their similarities and differences may be seen ata glance. The
Black Giants represent one of the newest varieties developed by Mr.
Burbank in his famous colony of four hundred,
LUTHER BURBANK
and that the individuals in question will all bear
Jarge fruit.
So we may expect (on this assumption), having
grafted our selected seedlings, that each of them
will show, two or three years hence, fruit of large
size.
But of course the other qualities of this fruit
will not be all that we could desire, so it will be
necessary to continue the experiment.
Suppose we do this by cross-pollenizing differ-
ent members of the same group. We shall thus
mate Bb with Bb. And the result of this mating,
as we know, will be to produce, in each group of
four, one BB individual, two Bb individuals, and
one bb individual. Being interpreted in terms of
our actual row of seedlings, as they stand in our
orchard in this, the fourth or fifth year of our ex-
periment, this means that in every lot of four.
thousand seedlings one thousand are pure domi-
nants as regards large fruit, two thousand are
mixed dominants, and one thousand are pure re-
cessives.
But now comes a very tangible and very prac-
tical complication. As regards their external
traits, and as regards the fruit that they will indi-
vidually bear, the one thousand pure dominants
(BB) and the two thousand mixed dominants (Bb)
are identical. There is nothing in their exterior
[82]
ON THE CHERRY
appearance, and there will be nothing in the ap-
pearance of their fruit, to indicate which of them
contain only the factors of dominance (BB), and
which contain the recessive factor combined with
the other (Bb). Yet for the purpose of future ex-
perimentation, in which we shall be obliged to call
on succeeding generations, it makes a vast differ-
ence which individuals are selected.
We are well aware of this as we walk along
the row of our seedlings, but we are also aware
that there is no method by which we can fathom
the secrets of the germ plasm of our seedlings, to
determine which are BB and which are Bb stock—
save only the method of future breeding.
In spite of our best endeavors it may very well
happen that the ten or twelve seedlings that we
now select, to be grafted for the continuance of
our experiment, include not a single pure domi-
nant (BB), but are made up exclusively of mixed
dominants (Bb). We have seen that the latter are
twice as numerous as the others, and that the two
look just alike; therefore the chances are two to
one that they will be chosen in the majority, and
it will not be strange if they are inadvertently
chosen to the exclusion of the others.
Yet this choice will insure that the factor of
smallness which we are striving to eliminate was
carefully preserved in the germ plasm of the
[83]
LUTHER BURBANK
cions of this second generation that we now graft
into membership in the aristocratic cherry colony.
And when, after another interval of two years,
these cions come into flower and are mutually
cross-pollenized, the seeds they bear, being the off-
spring of mixed dominants (Bb x Bb), will pro-
duce a generation of seedlings precisely repeating,
as regards the quality under consideration, the
formula of their parent generation. In a given
lot of four thousand, let us say, one thousand will
be BB, two thousand will be Bb, and one thousand
will be bb.
And precisely the same difficulty in selection
confronts the experimenter that confronted him
before.
If he could only know which are the pure domi-
nants and which the mixed one, all would be well.
But not only is it impossible for him to know
this, but he may not be able even to determine
with certainty, from examination of the foliage of
the seedlings, which ones belong to the group of
three thousand that bear the dominant factor
(either BB or Bb), and which to the group of one
thousand that bear only recessive factors (bb).
It must be borne in mind that the experimenter
is really considering a large number of qualities,
and it must be understood also that there may
not be any clearly established point of correlation
[84]
Mr. Burbank’s Abundance Cherry
This is another of the comparatively recent developments
in the famous cherry colony. It is often difficult to find names
for the many new varieties that are developed at Sebastopol, but in
the present case the word ‘“‘Abundance”’ seems almost to
suggest itself. It may be added that the
cherries taste as delicious as they look.
LUTHER BURBANK
between the foliage or stem or buds of the seedling
and the qualities of its future fruit as regards the
matter of size.
So it may quite conceivably happen that the
experimenter, using his best endeavors to make
right selection, picks out for preservation, among
the ten or twelve chosen out of the thousands, in-
dividuals that (though they have only large-fruited
ancestors in the two generations back of them),
yet themselves are pure recessives (bb) as regards
that quality, bearing no factor of large fruit what-
ever.
And in that event the experimenter will be con-
fronted, after another two-year or three-year in-
terval of waiting, with an array of fruit, borne on
the branches of his long-nurtured and carefully
selected cions, not a single specimen of which is
other than insignificant in size.
Other good qualities the fruit may have. But
in the essential quality that we are keeping under
consideration it is utterly lacking. In the matter
of size it reverts to the recessive member of its
great-grandparental ancestry. And so its telltale
progeny, hanging there among the luscious fruits
of surrounding branches (of other lineage), are
like the black sheep in a patrician family.
Not an enheartening experiment, thus far, for
the would-be developer of a colossal cherry.
[86]
Branch of 1909 Cherries
The number 1909 here refers not to the actual number of
cherries, but to the season in which they were first developed.
They appeared that year on one of the branches of the famous tree,
and they were at once seen to have such qualities as to merit
further attention. The branch was therefore multiplied
by grafting, and the new variety assured perma-
nence. As yet, however, it has not been named,
LUTHER BURBANK
Yet the case is not really quite so bad as it
seems. There is an old familiar saying that “blood
will tell,” and our new formula, if properly ap-
plied, gives full support to the saying.
Making application of it, we may say that the
dwarf cherry which we have developed as the re-
sult of about nine or ten years’ efforts at the pro-
duction of a giant, is after all a thing of quality,
even though it lacks one of the qualities that we
are seeking. It is a scrub as to size, but it is none
the less a thoroughbred as regards a number of
other qualities. In the matter of color, let us say,
it is a vivid red; it is sweet and appetizing; it is
resistant to disease; it will bear shipping, and
sO on.
Not so Bap as It SEEMS
Indeed, it is not unlikely that, as regards all
desirable characteristics but one, our cherries are
of such quality that, even in the patrician ranks
in which they find themselves, they must be ad-
mitted to be “upper crust,” to use a phrase that is
said sometimes to pass current in human patrician
circles. Or upon reverting to our formule, and
therefore to the terminology of the printer, we
may say that they are “upper case” as regards all
qualities other than size.
As to bigness, to be sure, they are pure reces-
sives and must be labeled bb; but as to juiciness
[88]
Other Nameless Seedlings
This picture shows some extra early seedlings thal are
now being given particular attention by Mr. Burbank. They
have not as yet reached the stage of development when they will be
named and sent forth into the world, but their present appéear-
ance gives assurance that this is only a matter of time.
The reader is aware that Mr. Burbank develops
hundreds of varieties of fruit that are in
many ways valuable, but they do not
meet his tests in all directions,
and hence are never in-
troduced.
LUTHER BURBANK
they are JJ; for shipping qualities they are SS;
for resistance to disease RR; for hardiness HH;
and for productivity PP. That is to say, they are
pure dominants for each of these qualities.
Their germ plasm requires only an infusion of
the dominant factor for bigness and their progeny
will prove that breeding does tell.
There is a tradition that passes current among
dog breeders which I do not vouch for but which
suggests a condition so comparable to that of our
cherry that I cite it by way of illustration. It is
said that the greyhound had been bred so exclu-
sively for speed that it developed all the desired
speed qualities of a hunting dog, able to overtake
any quarry, but lacked the courage to seize the
quarry once it had been overhauled. To over-
come this defect, so the story goes, some one
crossed the greyhound with the bulldog, thus
breeding in a strain of courage; and in subsequent
generations eliminated all the bulldog traits ex-
cept courage by selective breeding; and so gave
us a race of greyhounds in which the one missing
quality had been supplied.
This greyhound legend seems much more
plausible to-day, now that attention has been so
generally called to the segregation of unit charac-
ters, than it formerly seemed. But whatever its
truth, the case of the hypothetical greyhound
[90]
ON THE CHERRY
strongly suggests the case of our black-sheep
cherry. This also lacks but a single quality.
Can we not then breed this quality into our
cherry and by remedying the one defect attain our
ideal?
SOLVING THE DILEMMA
Fortunately, yes. This is precisely what we
can do, and what the wise plant experimenter will
do.
We have but to look about in our cherry col-
ony and we shall find another family, habiting
perhaps a neighboring branch, the fruit of which
exhibits in imposing measure the quality of size
that our protege of the moment so notably lacks.
This big cherry may even be the original domi-
nant parent with which our experiment started.
But it is a fruit which, although being everything
that could be desired in size, is unfortunately
quite lacking in color. In spite of its inviting big-
ness, it cannot make its way in the market be-
cause, even at full maturity, it has the appearance
of unripeness.
But it is big, and bigness is the thing we are
seeking. So we cross-fertilize the flowers of our
little cherry with those of this big one.
The result is readily foretold. Bigness, as we
have seen all along, is dominant, and so the off-
spring of this union are individually big. They
[91]
LUTHER BURBANK
are mixed dominants (Bb), to be sure, but that,
as we have seen, ‘is something that concerns their
descendants rather than themselves. Individu-
ally, they will bear big cherries, and that is all that
we demand.
But what as to the color of our new fruit?
Here fortune again favors us. For it is very
commonly observed that color of flower or fruit
is likely to be dominant over lack of color. So
our little red cherry, pure dominant as to color
(CC) will stamp its influence in this regard on the
progeny; the recessive color factor of the other
parent (cc) being subordinated or made latent.
In regard to color, as in regard to size, the progeny
will be mixed dominants only (Cc).
But here again the fact that they have the re-
cessive factor (c) is of no consequence, since as
we have seen the mixed dominant tangibly pre-
sents the quality as markedly as if it were a pure
dominant.
So when we have raised seedlings of this union
of our little red cherry with the big white one, and
when we have waited yet another pair of years,
we shall finally be rewarded with the appearance
on the cions, of fruit that meets our original ideal
as to size, is as red as could be desired, and ex-
hibits the other good qualities that entitle it to a
permanent place in our patrician colony.
[92]
Some That Have Proved Worthy
Here are cherries that have proved themselves of superior
quality, yet which have not been named, and which perhaps
will never be introduced. They have admirable flavor, but they lack
something of the aboundant production that characterizes other of the
cherries shown in earlier pictures. This fault will probably be
remedied in their descendants, and these cherries will be rep-
resented in their progeny. The story of the combination
of qualities of different parent forms to produce the
ideal cherry is told in detail in the text.
LUTHER BURBANK
It has taken us about twelve years to accom-
plish this result. And even now our new fruit
must be propagated by grafting and budding, for
it cannot be depended upon to breed absolutely
true from the seed.
The recessive factors for size and for color, as
we have seen, are in its germ plasm; and these
will make themselves manifest in the progeny.
But so long as we confine ourselves to the
method of grafting, we may hold the type of the
new variety and spread broadcast our big red
cherry with its combination of desirable qualities,
with full assurance that, given reasonable condi-
tions as to soil and climate, it will reproduce for-
ever the qualities of the patrician fruit, the ances-
tral history of which we have just traced.
INVITING OPPORTUNITIES
I have thought that by thus tracing in detail
the history of a single experiment, paying heed
chiefly to a single quality, but reminding the
reader from time to time that other qualities can-
not be ignored, we could perhaps gain a clearer
notion than would otherwise be possible of the
practical steps through which a new form of fruit
is developed.
It is through such series of experiments, lead-
ing sometimes forward and sometimes backward
in successive generations, that the four hundred
[94]
ON THE CHERRY
families of cherries of my patrician colony have
been developed. No two among the four hundred
show precisely the same combination of qualities,
but all of them show one combination or another
of good qualities.
Those that reverted to undesirable ancestral
traits have been weeded out.
And this is equivalent to saying that the se-
lected varieties of cherries represent a fixed stock
as regards many of their good qualities. We can-
not expect that any given one will reproduce its
kind precisely from the seed, for reasons that have
been fully explained. But we can expect that
there will be a goodly proportion among any
company of seedlings from this stock that would
produce fruit of excellent quality. In a word,
then, these perfected varieties of cherries repre-
sent stock that is immediately available for the
purposes of further experimentation.
What they have accomplished is an augury of
still better things that may be expected of their
descendants.
And so the practical question arises as to what,
specifically, are the qualities that the improved
cherry still lacks; and as to what particular ex-
periments in hybridizing should be undertaken to
remedy the defects.
The first and perhaps the most important de-
[95]
LUTHER BURBANK
fect that suggests itself is that the newly devel-
oped cherries, particularly the sweet ones, lack
something of hardiness. They grow to perfection
in California, but as yet they are little grown in
the eastern United States, and not at all in regions
north of Ohio and Missouri. Yet the race of cher-
ries, taken as a whole, constitutes a very hardy
stock. The wild cherries of the eastern United
States grow far to the north and are able to with-
stand the winters even in regions where the mer-
cury sometimes freezes.
It should be possible, and doubtless it will
prove possible, to combine the best existing vari-
eties of cherry with some of the wild cherries, and
thus to develop a race of cherries that will retain
the present qualities and introduce additional
qualities of hardiness fitting them for growth
anywhere in the United States; in fact this is a
work in which I am now engaged.
The common choke cherry (Prunus Virgini-
ana) is a very hardy tree, unusually productive,
and almost indifferent as to soil and climatic con-
ditions.
I have made experiments in the cultivation of
this tree, raising thousands of seedlings from fruit
of a large, handsome specimen that grew by the
roadside near Westfield, Massachusetts. The ex-
periments as far as conducted have been satisfac-
[96]
ON THE CHERRY
tory. Of course the fruit of this tree is astringent
and almost as bitter as a green persimmon. But
the little beach plum from which one of my finest
plums was developed, was scarcely of better
quality.
Perhaps it is not unreasonable to hope that it
may be possible to make some such improvement
in the cherry, through combination with the choke
cherry, as I produced by hybridizing the beach
plum with the Japanese plum.
In that event, we shall in all probability have
a cherry surpassing any existing one in size (be-
cause of the virility that the cross with the wild
species has given it), retaining the good qualities
of the present Burbank cherries, and in addition
being so hardy that it would thrive in any soil and
in almost any climate.
If the choke cherry should fail to prove a sat-
isfactory parent, there are numerous other wild
species from which to choose. The black cherry
of the eastern United States (Prunus serotina), is
a tree that grows from Nova Scotia to Florida and
westward to Dakota and Texas. It is of large
size, and bears a fruit resembling that of a choke
cherry in color and appearance, but of less astrin-
gent flavor. Then there is a small red cherry,
commonly called the bird cherry (Prunus Penn-
sylvanica), the fruit of which 1s sour and astrin-
[97]
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ON THE CHERRY
gent, but which is not without qualities of virility
and hardiness that might make it a valuable
hybridizing agent.
This is perhaps the hardiest of all cherries. |
have seen it growing wild nearly as far north as
Hudson Bay, in regions where it is not uncommon
for the mercury to fall sixty degrees below zero.
The California holly-leaf cherry and the Cata-
lina cherry are species that may be available for
the development of other desirable qualities—for
it is not in hardiness alone that the best varieties
sometimes are found wanting; though the species
just named are so far separated biologically and
physiologically that it may be impossible to com-
bine them.
Many cultivated cherries, for example, are
unable to withstand the warm spring rains with-
out serious loss from cracking of the fruit. Some-
times almost an entire crop will thus be ruined.
Again many cherries are susceptible to blight. A
bulletin issued by the State Commission of Hor-
ticulture of California lists more than twenty in-
sects—leaf hoppers, scales, mites, caterpillars, and
borers—that prey more or less upon root or bark
or leaf of the cherry tree, or that attack its fruit.
Then there are inherent maladies, such as the
tendency to overflow and condensation of sap,
forming an injurious gum that may induce decay
[99]
LUTHER BURBANK
of bark and wood (called gummosis), to which the
cherry is peculiarly liable.
Hybridizing with wild species, intelligently and
systematically carried out, might produce vari-
eties of cherry that would show exceptional re-
sistance to insect pests as well as inherent vitality
that makes for healthiness in the tree.
It has long been my belief that a solution of
the problem of protecting our fruit trees from
both insect and fungus pests must eventually be
found in the development of the qualities that
make for immunity of the trees themselves,
rather than in the resort to such expedients as
spraying and “gasing.” In this regard the plant
experimenter may well take a leaf from the note-
book of the physician, who has learned that im-
munity to disease often depends more upon the
condition of the patient than upon the presence
or absence of disease germs.
It is possible, furthermore, that the cherry may
be hybridized even more widely, and that a fruit
differing markedly from any cherry hitherto pro-
duced may thus be developed. An inkling of the
possibilities in this direction is given by some ex-
periments made recently by Professor N. E. Han-
sen, of the South Dakota Experiment Station, who
has cultivated a variety of wild fruit, called the
Sand Cherry, Prunus Besseyi, which is a dwarfed,
[100]
ON THE CHERRY
compact grower, of heavy form and good foliage,
and which had previously been put upon the mar-
ket as the Improved Dwarf Rocky Mountain
Cherry. This native tree has a fruit nearly as
large as the Richmond cherry and sometimes of
fairly good flavor. The Prunus Besseyi has al-
ways been considered a cherry by horticultural
and botanical writers. My experiments, however,
seem quite clearly to demonstrate that it is more
truly a plum.
I have had the tree under cultivation for more
than sixteen years. The fruits of the original
plant were black and bitter, almost as astringent
as a persimmon. By combining this plant with
various other American and Japanese plums, I
produced abundant seedlings, and in 1904 had de-
veloped one especially promising variety. The
fruit of this hybrid seedling ripens in California
about August 10th, and is extremely large for this
type. It is globular, and about one inch and a
quarter in diameter. The color is pure, deep
crimson, with a semi-transparent amber flesh,
firm, juicy, and of a rich, sweet flavor, resembling
that of the American plum. The tree is intensely
productive, even breaking with its own weight of
fruit.
It has been suggested that this tree gives great
promise as an aid in the production of a hardy
[101]
LUTHER BURBANK
type of fruit that will withstand the rigorous
climate and conditions of the cold northern plains
of Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. What
has just been said suggests that the fruit is not
truly a cherry, yet the botanists seem to feel that
it occupies an intermediate station, and is more
closely related to the cherry than any other fruit.
Such being the case, it should be possible to
hybridize this dwarf hardy species with the
cherry. The tree has the further valuable prop-
erty of being able to grow on dry, barren sands. A
hybrid cherry having this characteristic from one
of its ancestors might be expected to constitute a
fruit that would grow in regions too arid for the
existing cherry as well as in regions that are too
cold. And this is but one of several lines of pos-
sible development that invite the plant experi-
menter who will give attention to this type of
cherry.
To suggest one other line of improvement, it
is sufficient to call attention to the familiar fact
that the cherry has a very brief season. The
Burbank cherry fruits two or three weeks earlier
than others, as we have learned in another chap-
ter. But even so the total period during which
cherries of different varieties are in fruit is very
limited. One hears reports of an exceptional
cherry tree that fruits a second time in the au-
[102]
A Large, Late-Bearing Red Seedling
The cherry here shown, developed like the others prev-
ieusly shown, in Mr. Burbank’s celebrated colony, differs from
the one specifically called the Burbank, in that it is a very late bearer.
The Burbank bears particularly early. It is desirable to extend
the cherry season, and this variety has been preserved
chiefly because of its lateness, although it has many
other desirable qualities, as the picture sugg¢sts.
LUTHER BURBANK
tumn. By the usual process of raising numerous
seedlings, or by crossing and selection, a variety
having this fall-bearing habit might be produced.
The value of such a variety is obvious,—though the
early ripening of the cherry is at present what
gives it greatest value,—and it is well worth the
while of the amateur to attempt experiments in
this direction.
The fact that cherry trees of one kind or
another grow throughout the United States makes
it possible for almost anyone to experiment with
this fruit. And the opportunities for improve-
ment are especially inviting.
—In cherry trees, as in the
human plant, “blood will tell.”
THE RESPONSIVENESS OF
THE PEAR
Wuat Has BEEN Done Is But THE BEGINNING
to personify inanimate objects writes to
ask which tree among our cultivated ones
I regard as the most “human.”
And then, without awaiting reply, my corre-
spondent supplies the answer:
“The pear, of course,” he says with full assur-
ance. |
But when he goes on to state the reasons for
this decision, I am not quite sure that his argument
carries conviction.
Perhaps the most striking bit of analogy that
he offers is the fact that a pear tree sometimes
fails to reach maturity until it is from fifteen to
twenty years old, coupled with the cognate fact
that the tree may continue to thrive for three
score years and ten or even longer.
He cites a good many other analogies, or sup-
A CORRESPONDENT who is seemingly prone
[Votume [V—Cuapter IV]
LUTHER BURBANK
posed analogies, to be sure,—the fact that the pear
over-rides adversity, as it were, bearing abund-
antly in bad soils and when totally neglected; the
fact that it grows by roadsides and in dooryards
showing a domestic habit and as it were a friendly
spirit toward man; and finally, the fact that it
responds to attention and proves as receptive and
responsive to good treatment as it is resistant to
bad.
But I am by no means sure that as to most of
these traits, and for that matter in regard to any
others that might be mentioned, the apple tree is
not to be given a place quite on a par with that
which the pear can claim. There is no occasion
to dispute about the matter, however, for at best
such comparisons have no great significance.
Let it suffice that the pear and the apple, close
cousins as they are, may very well be considered
the two orchard trees that are friendliest to man,
in the broad use of the word.
They have been his associates probably almost
from the earliest times when he learned that
plants would respond to cultivation.
They have gone with him on his chief migra-
tions throughout the temperate zone and even well
into sub-arctic regions.
They have proved themselves adaptable to all
soils and nearly all climates; and they jointly pro-
[106]
Seedling Pears
The pear is a fruit that has been very long under cultiva-
tion, and it has developed certain familiar and very individual
characteristics. A comparatively few types have become popular and
are raised everywhere. But nothing more is necessary than
to plant the seeds, to secure seedlings showing the
greatest variety as to their fruit. Two aber-
rant types are here shown, and nu-
merous others are shown in
succeeding pictures.
LUTHER BURBANK
duce a variety of pulpy fruits that stand in a class
by themselves and are quite without competitors—
or were until the quince came under the hand of
the plant developer in very recent times.
Earty MIGRATIONS
Which of the twain, pear or apple, was first
adopted, no one can say, but it is certain that both
were friendly with man even in prehistoric times.
There is evidence from the ruins of remote
civilization of the Lake Dwellers of Switzerland
that the pear was known even in that day. Of
course it was familiar to the Greeks and Romans
from the earliest recorded periods of history.
Long before that it had come out of its central
Asian home—if, as is almost certain, that was its
original habitat—and had become thoroughly do-
mesticated about the Mediterranean. Other
branches of the same race had migrated eastward
until they found a home in China and Japan.
And in these widely separated regions, at the
extremes of the largest continent, the two descend-
ants of the primitive stock developed, each in its
own way, in response to soil, climate, and the di-
verse temperaments of the peoples, until the pear
of Europe was in many ways a different fruit from
the pear of the Far East.
But there was one migration made by prehis-
toric man in which the pear, apparently, did not
[108]
The Long and the Short of It
No one unfamiliar with practical horticulture would sus-
pect that these two pears were grown from seeds of the same
fruit. They illustrate the strangely varied hereditary factors that find
lodgment in the germ cells of @ cultivated fruit. And of
course they furnish material for selective breeding
through which new varieties may be developed.
LUTHER BURBANK
accompany him. This was the final stage of the
eastward journey of our remote ancestors which
carried them across a land bridge, now no longer
in existence, between northeastern Asia and the
present Alaska, and thus brought them to
America.
It seems a fair presumption that when prehis-
toric man made this final migration he brought
the apple with him.
At all events, with or without man’s aid, the
apple made its way across the bridge that joined
the continents.
Probably the fact that the seeds of the pear
will not germinate when once dried may explain
the failure of that tree to come with the forerun-
ners of the Indian to the new continent.
The seeds of all orchard fruits germinate far
better if they have not been too thoroughly dried.
But the seed of the pear is peculiarly susceptible
to destruction through drying; and if the ancestral
pear had the same quality, which we need not
doubt, this fact may in itself have been instru-
mental in restricting the spread of a tree which,
when introduced in America in modern times,
proved thoroughly adapted to our soil and climate.
We must not press this point too far, however,
for the plum seed also dies if dried; yet the plum
came to America in prehistoric times along with
[110]
ON THE PEAR
the apple. And, for that matter, we shall see else-
where that there is another possible interpreta-
tion of the story of the prehistoric migrations of
the trees.
Be all that as it may, the pear retains to this
day evidence of the inherent need, in the interest
of its race, that the seeds borne at the heart of its
fruit shall be preserved in a moist condition.
The skin of the pear, except in the most re-
cently modified varieties, is firm and thick. It is
of a green or mottled yellow color calculated to
protect it from the observant eyes of birds and
animals rather than to attract them. It has been
assumed that the eatable pulp that surrounds the
seed was designed by nature—that is to say, de-
veloped through natural selection—for the pur-
pose of attracting animals and birds, that these
creatures may aid in disseminating the seed.
But the case of the pear, in common with that
of the wild crab apple, suggests that the chief
purpose of the fruit-pulp is to keep the seeds moist
through the winter. As a further aid to this, and
in token of the moisture-loving quality of its seeds,
the skin of the pear is fortified by a deposit of
woody cells at its inner surface that give it a gran-
ular or even gritty texture.
This unique quality of the fruit may even ex-
tend to the pulp itself, especially with the more
[111]
LUTHER BURBANK
primeval forms, giving the pear a texture different
from that of any other fruit.
This unusual habit of depositing wood cells in
the fruits, aside from the seed case itself, is no
longer of use to the cultivated pear; but the fact
that it tends to be retained shows how important a
part it bore in the struggle for existence of the
pear’s remote ancestors.
But let us put aside theories as to the remote
history of the pear and consider the fruit in its
modern relations.
The significant thing to bear in mind is that
in our day the pear is represented by two races,
obviously related, yet quite as obviously long sep-
arated, one of them finding its home in Europe
and (since the Discovery) in America and the
other being indigenous to eastern Asia, the two
having thus migrated in opposite directions,
circling the earth, and finally meeting on the
Pacific Coast of America.
And the fact that these two races of pears have
thus diverged, yet still retain the capacity to hy-
bridize, is an all-important one from the stand-
point of the fruit developer.
This fact is, indeed, the basis of the newest
progress in the development of the pear, and it
gives the augury of still more important develop-
ments probably to take place in the near future.
[112]
Broad and Sturdy
Types
These are seed-
ling pears of another
type, although originated
from the same_ source.
They have qualities that
make them worthy of
preservation for further
breeding experiments, but
on the whole they have not
been thought worthy
of introduction.
LUTHER BURBANK
It is only fair to recall, however, that the new
beginnings in the development of the pear took
place in western Europe independently of an ori-
ental alliance.
NEw BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE
The pears of to-day, as known in the eastern
United States, and for that matter most of the
finest Californian varieties, are the bearers of an
impulse to development that was given by
a French horticulturist, Jean Baptiste Van Mons,
and Andrew Knight of England about a century
ago. Van Mons acted on a theory, now aban-
doned, that young plants produce the best prog-
eny. But this led him “to sow, to re-sow, to sow
again, to sow perpetually.” And he selected his
seeds with such care as to develop many improved
varieties. In particular, he taught some pears to
bear fruit in three years from the seed.
Van Mons produced by selection about four
hundred new varieties of pears, among others a
dwarf variety that was a prolific bearer.
Meantime, however, the pear was making its
way in America, and one of the most famous va-
rieties, the Seckel, originated in the early part of
the nineteenth century on the farm of a man
whose name it bears near Philadelphia. This was
a “spontaneous” variant or mutant, the precise
origin of which is unknown.
[114]
Introducing Color
Here are pear seed-
lings that not only
show wide diversity of
form, but almost equally
wide variation in color. It
has previously been point-
ed out that the pear usu-
ally lacks color. Here,
obviously, particularly in
the specimen shown in
the center, is opportunily
for the development of
pears having richly col-
ored skins like those of
the apple. Mr. Burbank’s
experiments in this direc-
tion have already had
interesting results.
LUTHER BURBANK
At the time of its origin the Seckel was pro-
nounced by the conservative London Horticultur-
ist Society to be superior to any European variety
of fall pear then known.
Rather curiously it chanced that the next very
notable step in the progress of the pear also took
place on a farm near Philadelphia. The owner
of the farm was Mr. Peter Kieffer. The thing for
which he was responsible was the introduction of
a pear bearing his name, which originated through
the chance hybridization of a pear of European
strain with the Chinese sand pear, which had been
introduced as an ornamental garden tree not long
after relations were established between America
and the Far East.
The oriental pear which thus at last came to
mingle its racial strains with those of this remote
relative, after the two had traveled around the
world in opposite directions, was a graceful tree
having large and attractive flowers and bearing
fruit of a pleasing fragrance but of such consist-
ency as to be almost uneatable except when
cooked. In spite of the defects of its fruit, how-
ever, the oriental pear had certain qualities of
hardiness and resistance to disease that made it a
valuable mate for its European cousin. So the
Kieffer pair soon gained popularity.
So also did a number of other hybrid pears of
[116]
Diversified Colors
Although of the
same heritage, no two
of these pears show char-
acteristics suggesting close
relationship. Of the four,
the one at the right is in
some respects the most in-
teresting, owing to its cu-
rious segregation of the
different color pigments.
The progeny of the seeds
of this pear may be ex-
pected to show green indi-
viduals and red individ-
uals, as well as those
of various degrees
of mottling.
LUTHER BURBANK
similar origin, including the Le Conte, the Garber,
and the Smith. These hybrids soon became stand-
ard pears in the Gulf States, where the European
pears do not thrive.
MAMMOTH PEARS IN CALIFORNIA
The hybrid pears did not gain popularity in
California, because the climate and soil of this
state seemed to be peculiarly hospitable to the
European pears, notably the Bartlett.
By crossbreeding and selection these have
been so developed, without hybridization with the
oriental species, as to assume almost colossal pro-
portions, and while differing widely in flavor from
the original stock, to retain enough characteristics
of the original to constitute a most valuable mar-
ket fruit.
The California pears, indeed, have quite out-
done themselves. They have been described as
“grand in size, delicate in color and aroma, and of
unsurpassed richness.” A specimen has been re-
ported that was “nine inches high, sixteen inches
around the base, and five pounds in weight.”
Pears of allied varieties show scarcely less
notable tendency to grow to unprecedented size;
for example, five Vicar of Winkfields are reported
as weighing four pounds, eight ounces; nine Easter
Beurre as weighing 2414 pounds, the heaviest sin- _
gle specimen weighing 2°4 pounds, and the like.
1118}
ON THE PEAR
In the mere matter of size, then, there remains
little to be desired; but there are other qualities
as to which not so much can be said. In particu-
lar the pear is often susceptible to disease, and in
general the extreme development of productivity
has been more or less associated with a tendency
to lose vigor, rapidity of growth and general
vitality.
For this and sundry other reasons it seemed
to me that it might be desirable to make further
experiments in the blending of the oriental and
occidental heredities. So as early as 1884 I made
importations of the seeds of the Japanese pear.
In a shipment containing loquats, plums, chest-
nuts, persimmons, gooseberries, blackberries,
peaches and raspberries, I received also twenty
pounds of pear seeds.
The seedlings were grown, but at first little use
was made of them except as grafting stocks.
The valuable developments that ultimately
came from the introduction of the oriental hered-
ities were not secured at the outset.
TRAITS OF THE ORIENTAL PEAR
About 1890 I imported from Japan large quan-
tities of the seeds of the Chinese sand pear. The
seedlings proved extremely variable. Some of
them grew six or seven feet the first year, while
others from the same lot of seed, under exactly
[119]
LUTHER BURBANK
the same conditions, grew only a few inches; and
a corresponding rate of growth characterizes the
seedlings as long as they live. But, although the
seedlings themselves proved so variable, their
fruit was singularly uniform in size and quality.
As to shape, the fruit of the oriental pear is
usually oblate, approaching the globular. This
raises a rather curious, if not very important,
question as to whether the European pear owes
its very characteristic shape to artificial selection.
The ordinary pear, as everyone knows, has a form
that is so individual and so little duplicated, that
no single word of familiar usage describes it. In
this regard, as in a good many others, the pear is
unique.
One would not commonly think of describing
anything as “apple-shaped,” or “peach-shaped,”
or “plum-shaped,” but “pear-shaped” is a cogno-
men that is at once convenient and definitive.
So, as I said, the fact that the oriental pear has
not assumed this shape has a certain interest and
suggestiveness.
The hybridizing experiments that were begun
as soon as I was in possession of the oriental
seedlings called for more patience, perhaps, than
almost any other tests that the fruit experimenter
can make, for the very obvious reason that the
pear is the slowest to mature of all the fruits grown
[120]
A Patrician
of form that entitle it to
lso good qualities of flesh,
ite lacking in richness of color, excepl
tem, where there is a splash of red that suggests
lor factors that might be brought
to the surface by selective breeding.
This seedling pear has qualities
a special consideration. It has a
but, as will be seen, it is qu
just about the s
submerged hereditary co
LUTHER BURBANK
in temperate climates. It often requires from
ten to twenty years for seedlings of the pear to
come to their first fruiting. The matter may be
forced a little by grafting the pear cions on quince
stock, but while this makes them fruit earlier, it
also tends to dwarf them, and I do not recommend
this as a general practice, though highly desirable
for special purposes.
Whoever has not patience to wait had best not
undertake experiments with the pear.
With a tree of such slow development, it is
peculiarly desirable to make no mistakes in select-
ing seedlings for preservation. Judgment as to
the future tree must be based, as with other fruit,
largely on its growth, and the appearance of the
foliage. Pear seedlings that have an abundance
of large leaves, and strong, thick, short-jointed
wood, and thick, fat buds, are those to be selected.
But this is not by any means as sure an indication
of superior fruit in the pear as in most of our cul-
tivated fruit, for the reason that Van Mons and
other workers in this line have mostly sought
early-bearing and fine quality of fruit, neglecting
the foliage and growth of the tree almost fully.
Tue Errect oF New Boop
I grew great quantities of pear seedlings from
seed imported in 1884 from Japan. The selected
seedlings of this original stock have enormous,
[122]
ON THE PEAR
glossy leaves, some of which for weeks after the
first frost show varied and brilliant colors almost
like the autumn foliage of oaks and maples of the
Northeast. Many of the best of these were dis-
tributed for planting as ornamental trees.
Very early in the experiments I found among
many seedlings of a cross between the Bartlett
and the hybrid Le Conte one that seemed to have
exceptional qualities. This proved to be aston-
ishingly productive of fruit of the largest size and
best quality, and the tree had extraordinary vigor
of growth and was apparently immune to the
blight.
But only one was selected as showing good
promise as a fruit bearer. Through further hy-
bridization and selection, during a period of near-
ly a quarter of a century, the hybrid progeny of
this Japanese pear developed a variety that was
introduced in 1911 as the “Test.”
Year after year it had produced two or three
times as much as any other pear that I had ever
grown. The fruit averages rather larger than that
of the Bartlett, and it appears about four weeks
later. The flesh is similar to that of the Le Conte
but superior to it in quality, although hardly
comparable to that of the Bartlett except when
cooked.
Although I have raised and fruited number-
[123]
LUTHER BURBANK
less seedlings from a great variety of crosses, and
have noted many variations, the Test is the only
one that I have thus far thought worthy of intro-
duction. Several hundred three-year-old seed-
lings of this new pear, grafted on quince stocks,
give great promise by their vigorous, compact
growth, heavy foliage and full, round buds.
Among those that have fruited are some mam-
moth pears of exquisite quality when cooked; and
a few are good when fresh.
There is unusual variation in growth of wood,
foliage, season of ripening, form, size, and quality
of fruit. Some of the hybrids have a smooth, pol-
ished skin with red cheeks; others are russet
throughout. The varying qualities of the hybrids
are doubtless due to the releasing of latent char-
acters brought about by the commingling of the
two widely diverse strains.
It was necessary thus to hybridize and select
through successive generations, because the ori-
ental pear brought to the combination very unde-
sirable qualities of fruit as to texture and flavor.
Only when these were eliminated from later gen-
erations, and the qualities of the Bartlett and its
allies substituted, did the hybrid pear become a
commercial possibility.
But, along with its undesirable qualities of
fruit, the oriental pear brought other qualities
[124]
Unhandsome but Luscious
This seedling pear shows a tendency to depart from the
typical pear shape, being much broader at the base, and corre-
spondingly less graceful, than the favorite varieties. It has, however,
qualities of flesh that commend it, but these were not considered
by Mr. Burbank to be sufficiently exceptional to war-
rant the introduction of the fruit.
LUTHER BURBANK
that were pre-eminently desirable. First and fore-
most it had fundamental vigor of constitution that
promised to supply precisely what the European
pear most lacked. This was manifested not only
in the vigor of its growth, but in its seemingly al-
most entire immunity to the attacks of the disease
that has been the scourge of the pear growers of
America for more than a century, and which made
its appearance in California about ten years ago,
the disease known as the pear blight.
THE Pear TREE SCOURGE
To appreciate the importance of this element
of resistance to disease, as manifested by the ori-
ental pear, it must be understood that the blight
is a malady of such virulent nature that when it
attacks the pear tree it very commonly results in
killing it outright. This suggests, obviously, a pe-
culiar susceptibility on the part of the pear. Such
susceptibility is manifested, unfortunately, in ex-
ceptional measure by the best European varieties,
including the Flemish Beauty and the Bartlett.
This, presumably, is the penalty of over-specializa-
tion in a certain direction, or unbalanced selection.
Until very recently the cause of pear blight was
much disputed, but the agricultural experiment
stations have now furnished conclusive proof that
it is a bacterial disease, due to the presence of a
germ that has been named Bacillus amolovorus.
[126]
ON THE PEAR
This germ has close cousinship with the vari-
ous tribes of bacilli that cause the contagious
human maladies. And there is a curious resem-
blance between the assault of the microbes on the
pear tree and the corresponding assaults of cer-
tain bacilli, for example the diphtheria bacillus,
on the human organism. In one case as in the
other, the bacilli, once they find a lodging place,
multiply inordinately and give out excretions that
are virulently poisonous. Located on the flowers
and fruit of the pear, or finding their way to the
inner bark or cambium layer of the tree, they
multiply prodigiously and exert a malignant in-
fluence that withers blossoms, blights the fruit,
and causes the leaves to take on a bronzed red
hue that is often premonitory of the death of the
tree.
If they find lodgment in the cambium layer of
the trunk, they may spread rapidly in every di-
rection, until they girdle the tree, shutting off its
supply of sap as effectively as if it had been
girdled with an axe.
Wherever lodged, the colonies of bacilli may
be located by the oozing out of a milky or dirty
brown sticky liquid when the spring rains come.
This liquid is attractive to insects, and as the feet
and bodies of these marauders become covered
with the germ-laden fluid, the transfer of the
[127]
LUTHER BURBANK
germs to other trees and to flowers and fruit even
fairly remote is thus assured. Not merely flies and
gnats, but the bee itself may have a share in thus
transporting the contagion from one tree to
another till it infects every tree in the orchard.
The nectary of a pear, which the bee may in-
advertently inoculate, furnishes a most favorable
medium for the multiplication of the bacilli.
Thence they work their way from the fruit buds
to the limbs. Once they gain access, through the
links in the tree’s armor furnished by the buds,
to the cambium layer of the inner bark, there is
nothing to prevent the indefinite extension of their
colony.
A tree thus inoculated may soon take on the
appearance of a tree scourged by fire. Indeed,
the malady is sometimes spoken of as “fire blight.”
ANTISEPTIC SURGERY IN THE ORCHARD
The measures taken by the horticulturist to
save his tree when thus attacked are curiously
suggestive of the methods of the modern surgeon.
Infected limbs must be amputated; local areas of
infection in the bark or trunk or large branches
must be thoroughly excised, including a goodly
portion of healthy wood and bark to make sure
of the removal of every microbe. Large wounds
are then carefully disinfected with a sponge or
bunch of waste soaked in kerosene or in a solu-
[128]
Dissimilar Twins
These seedling pears
are full sisters, not-
withstanding their extreme
dissimilarity of appear-
ance. They illustrate the
curious segregation of
characters —in this case
the color of the skin—in
organisms of mized her-
itage. It is obvious that
the pear at the right has
qualities of color that the
plant developer is sure
to seize upon.
LUTHER BURBANK
tion of corrosive sublimate, one part to the thou-
sand.
It is merely antiseptic surgery applied to the
tree to combat a microbe closely similar to the
ones that are man’s most malignant enemies.
But, of course, such measures as these, how-
ever necessary, can by no means be regarded as
solving the problem of the pear blight. Just as
the surgeon of to-day attempts to prevent the in-
trusion of the germs, rather than to depend on
killing them after they appear, so the orchardist
must hope to find a means of preventing the blight
instead of being obliged to practice such heroic
and wasteful curative measures.
One measure looking to this end that has been
suggested is the destruction of old hawthorne and
wild crab apple trees and of abandoned pear and
apple trees in the neighborhood of the orchard,
since a single infected tree would prove a source
of danger to every tree within a radius of a mile
or more.
Such measures are important; but they do not
go to the root of the matter.
The real solution must come through making
the tree immune to the attacks of the germ. This
is the keynote of preventive medicine with the
human subject to-day, as illustrated by the vaccine
treatment, of which the most familiar example is
[130]
More Misfits
This picture shows
seedlings of the same
heritage that illustrate the
extremes of form, some-
what as the preceding pic-
ture illustrated extremes
of color. The figure at
the right shows the ideal
pear shape, upon which
tradition has set its seal
of approval. Mr. Burbank
feels that the ideal pear
should retain this shape,
in deference to the
taste of the public.
LUTHER BURBANK
Sir Almroth Wright’s inoculation for the preven-
tion of typhoid fever. It is at least within the pos-
sibilities that a not dissimilar inoculation may give
the tree immunity by developing its powers of re-
sistance, quite as the human subject is given
immunity.
Of course the tree has no arterial system that
can be inoculated with hypodermic syringe as the
human subject is inoculated. But the life of the
tree is dependent on the circulation of fluids with-
in its tissues none the less. These fluids are taken
in by the roots, and they find their way to the ut-
termost leaf. So it is conceivable that by proper
treatment of the soil about the tree, the tissues of
the tree itself might be so altered as to become
resistant to the attacks of the bacterial enemies.
IMMUNITY THROUGH TREATMENT AND BREEDING
Nor is this idea altogether theoretical. Experi-
ments have already been made that look to the
checking of the growth of the tree by withholding
fertilizers and water, that the development of the
tender buds and shoots, which are the usual points
of attack of the enemy, may be made to take place
slowly and thus to present tissue of a less succu-
lent order.
Such hardening of the wood by withholding
water has proved effective in the case of some pear
orchards in Colorado, where it appears that the
[132]
A Seedling Pear
This is a seedling pear that departs from the ideal shape,
but which has many other qualities that highly commend it.
It is large, and of luscious quality of flesh. Owing to its form, and
to its lack of color, however, it has not been introduced, but
has been used in further breeding experiments in the
attempt to develop an ideal pear.
LUTHER BURBANK
pear does not really need so much water as it or-
dinarily receives.
But the effort to give the tree immunity must
go even deeper. Induced immunity is valuable,
but the ideal condition is that of inherent resist-
ance, bred in the tissues.
Physicians tell us that the all-important thing
in warding off bacterial infections in the human
subject is the inherent vitality and resistance of
the patient himself. In the last analysis, this is
the prime essential. A thoroughly rugged organ-
ism may be immune to almost every type of bac-
terial disease. We are told that almost no one
escapes infection with the germs of tuberculosis.
The ones who show no evidence of the disease are
simply those whose tissues are so resistant that
the attacks of the bacilli are thwarted.
The horticulturist must take a lesson from the
experience of the physician, in particular with
regard to the malady we are now considering; for,
as we have just seen, the analogy between the pear
blight and human infections is almost perfect.
So the ideal at which the plant experimenter must
aim is the development of a tree that will be im-
mune to the attacks of the bacillus, however freely
the germ finds access to it.
My new hybrid pear, thanks to its Oriental
heritage, seems to fulfil this condition. The same
[134]
_ON THE PEAR
thing appears to be true, at least in some measure,
of the other hybrids that have the Oriental strain.
So there is every reason to hope that we shall be
able to develop races of pears, having all desirable
qualities of fruit for the different markets, that
will be free from the pest that hitherto has made
the raising of this fruit a more or less precarious
industry.
IDEALS AND POSSIBILITIES
As to the other needs and possibilities of pear
development, not much need be said. Reference
has elsewhere been made to the desirability of
giving the pear a brilliant color; but this can
doubtless be accomplished without great difficulty.
It has also been noted that as to size of fruit, as
well as in the matter of form, there is little to be
desired by way of change.
There is, however, one quality that the special-
ized pears have markedly lacked. They will keep
for a time if plucked while green, and will ripen
off the tree. But if allowed to ripen on the tree
they decay very quickly after picking. It is ob-
viously desirable that the pear should be given
keeping qualities. But here, as in case of im-
munity to the blight, the solution is already in
sight.
Among the varied fruits of my hybrid seed-
lings, there are some that produce winter pears
[135]
LUTHER BURBANK
that keep quite as well as ordinary winter apples.
These furnish the foundation for future hy-
bridizing and selecting experiments, through
which, without question, it will be possible to
produce races of pear having all the qualities of
flesh that have hitherto made the fruit popular,
and with the added property of keeping over
winter.
Other possibilities of pear development lying
a little farther in the future and therefore some-
what more vaguely outlined, have to do with the
hybridization of the pear with the allied fruits of
related species. It is well-known that the pear
shows, in this regard, a strong disinclination for
entering into such an alliance. The pear may be
grafted on the quince but it is usually considered
impossible to graft it on the apple.
I successfully carried out such a grafting ex-
periment, however, when I was a boy in Massa-
chusetts, the cion being a Seckel pear. But al-
though this grafted cion bore fruit for two sea-
sons, it then died, probably because of the uncon-
geniality of the alliance.
This experiment shows that there is not com-
plete antagonism between the two species; and
the same thing is further demonstrated by the
well-known fact that the apple may be grafted on
the pear stock; although here also the alliance is
[136]
The Ideal Pear
This is the pear
which represents the
culmination of Mr. Bur-
bank’s many years of ex-
periment with this fruit.
It will be seen that the
best qualities of the seed-
lings shown in the earlier
illustrations have _ been
combined to produce a
pear that is of ideal shape,
large in size, and beauti-
fully colored. When we
add that the flesh of this
pear is of corresponding
quality, it will be plain
that the fruit justifies the
name of “The Test,”
under which it was
introduced.
LUTHER BURBANK
not likely to prove fruitful and satisfactory.
But of course grafting is only an incidental
adjunct of the work of the plant developer. The
impulse to progress must come through hybridiza-
tion and selection. Here, it appears to me, there
are great possibilities. I have hybridized the pear
and the apple; also the pear and the quince. The
seedlings from these unions have sometimes
seemed thrifty, but were always infertile. They
were highly interesting none the less.
The most successful cross was obtained by us-
ing the polien of the Bartlett pear upon the
Gravenstein apple.
The seedlings from this cross were divergent in
appearance, and variable as to growth. One of
the seedlings grew fully as fast as the ordinary
apple seedling, but most of them had a sickly,
dwarfed appearance, and some died after having
made a foot of growth. Three or four of those that
lived were grafted on an apple tree. They main-
tained moderate growth for several years, but
were never healthy or vigorous, and never gave
any intimation of blooming.
The results of the crosses between the pear
and quince were closely similar. From these hy-
brids also I failed to secure fruit. Some grew with
great vigor for years, while others almost refused
to grow at all. In general appearance, and espe-
[138]
Seedling Pear
Trees
The wild pears have
a protective equipment
of thorns, as illustrated
by the seedlings at the
right. These thorns are
no longer needed to pro-
tect the cultivated pear,
and they have been en-
tirely discarded by the bes!
cultivated varieties, as il-
lustrated by the seedling
at the left. An occasional
seedling, however, still re-
verts to the thorny type,
showing the strong
hold of heredity.
LUTHER BURBANK
cially in foliage, the hybrids bear a closer resem-
blance to the pear than to the quince. But many
appeared to be fairly good composites of these
widely differing plants.
As there are many varieties both of pears
and quinces, each having individual characters and
diverse hereditary tendencies, an inviting field
is open to the careful and patient experimenter
in crossing these distinct yet related species. If
the right combination can be effected, the results
undoubtedly will be profoundly interesting and
valuable. Precisely what these results will be,
no one can predict. But that new fruits, making
most valuable additions to the dietary, may ulti-
mately be thus developed, there is no reason to
doubt.
—The pear and its cousin the
apple may well be considered
the two orchard trees which
are friendliest to man.
FUZZY PEACHES AND SMOOTH-
SKINNED NECTARINES
Two Fruits Wuicu Bec ror More IMPROVEMENT
R. BURBANK,” said a visitor, “you have
M taken the thorns off the blackberry bush
and the spines from the cactus. Now
why can’t you take the fuzz off the peach?
“Most of us don’t deal much with blackberry
briers or with cactuses, spiny or otherwise; but
we all eat peaches, and a good many of us would
about as willingly bite into a spiny cactus as a
fuzzy peach. If you will only take the wool off
this otherwise perfect fruit, we will raise a monu-
ment to you by popular subscription.”
“But nature took the wool off the peach some
thousands of years before you and I were born,”
I answered; “and I have not heard of any monu-
ments being erected in commemoration of the
event.”
“What in the world do you mean? A fuzzless
peach—-who ever heard of such a thing?”
[VoLumME IV—Cwapter V]
LUTHER BURBANK
“Everyone has; the fruit that you call a necta-
rine is precisely that thing—a peach without the
fuzz.”
“But that does not serve the purpose at all,”
he insisted. “If the nectarine is a peach that has
lost its fuzz, it is also a peach that has lost its
flavor. What we want is a fuzzless peach with the
true peach flavor remaining.”
“Well, I think I shall be able to satisfy you
even there before a very great while,” I answered;
“for I am on the track of experiments that are
likely to meet all your requirements in that direc-
tion. Even now I have a fruit that is smooth-
skinned and yet is unquestionably a peach—not
only that, but a peach of excellent flavor. But it
is not yet quite good enough to put on the market,
and I shall have to carry the experiment a stage
or two farther before I am ready to demand that
monument.”
And then I led the way to a part of the orchard
where I was able to show a number of peaches with
perfectly smooth skins, some of which are by no
means ill-flavored, even though none quite com-
pete with the best peaches now on the market.
My visitor assured me that nothing else that he
had seen gave him so much satisfaction or aroused
such pleasurable anticipations as this smooth-
skinned peach.
[142]
Flowering Peach in Blossom
Mr. Burbank’s fondness for flowers has led him to experi-
ment largely in the production of fruit trees having beautiful
blossoms. The flowering peach here shown is an example of a tree
that has been doubly specialized, so to speak, through selection.
The Japanese are the pioneers in the production of
fruit trees that bear beautiful flowers.
LUTHER BURBANK
And I suspect that a very large number of per-
sons under the same circumstances would be of
the same mind, for I am told that the aversion to
the fuzz of the peach is a by no means uncommon
form of phobia.
It might be of interest to inquire just how this
curious antipathy to anything so soft and delicate
as the structure of the peach’s skin was developed.
I know men of perfectly stable nerves who cannot
touch a peach without experiencing a disagreeable
sensation, and who cannot bite through the fuzzy
surface without shuddering. And as there seem
to be large numbers who experience more or less
the same sensation, it goes without saying that
there must be some hereditary basis for this curi-
ous and seemingly absurd prejudice.
It is somewhat comparable to the fear of the
mouse so common with women, or the instinctive
dread of the snake that most of us feel.
Just how the peculiar antipathy was developed,
would, as I say, be a curious matter for specula- .
tion. Here, however, we are concerned with the
fuzz of the peach not in its direct relation to hu-
man psychology, but in its bearing on the heredity
of the peach itself. To the plant developer this
is a matter of interest, because linked with it is
the question of the way in which the superfluous
skin-covering can be eliminated.
[144]
The Freestone
Indian Peach
In his extensive ex-
periments in breeding
better varieties of peaches,
Mr. Burbank has followed
his usual custom of going
to all countries for mate-
rial with which to make
crossbreeding or hybridiz-
ing experiments. This In-
dian peach has’ been
utilized chiefly because of
its freestone quality. The
tendency to loosen the flesh
about the stone as the fruit
ripens is, fortunately,a
hereditable quality.
LUTHER BURBANK
I speak thus of the fuzz of the peach as being
superfluous, but on second thought we cannot be
too sure that it really serves the fruit no useful
function.
Indeed, the inference should be rather the other
way.
At least we may feel sure that unless the woolly
coating at some time served a very important
purpose, it would never have been developed; or,
having been developed, it would not have been
retained.
That is assuming, however, that the peach de-
veloped this unusual fruit covering in a state of
nature, and without the aid of man’s selective in-
fluence, which it certainly did.
How THE Peacu Got Its Coat
If it could be shown that the fuzz was devel-
oped only after the peach came under cultivation,
and in response to man’s wishes, the case would
be altered. In that event it might readily be that
the fuzzy covering, appearing first as an acci-
dental “sport,” had been retained because it
pleased the fancy of some plant experimenter, or
met the taste of some influential market man—
say of Athens in the olden days, or of Rome in
the time of its power.
But in all probability the peach had its fuzzy
coat at a time vastly more remote than this. It is
[146]
The Exquisite
Peach
This is one of Mr.
Burbank’s crossbred
peaches, which must be
admitted fully to merit its
name. It has qualities of
flesh that correspond with
its attractiveness of
form and color.
LUTHER BURBANK
almost certain that the coat was developed long
before the fruit came under cultivation.
The fair presumption is, probably, that the an-
cestor of the peach, wandering from one territory
to another as all plants do, found itself at a certain
stage of its career in an environment where the
conditions of moisture and wind and sunshine
were peculiarly trying, or where some insect or
fungoid or bacterial pest menaced its immature
fruit. And in such a case it may readily have
chanced that a peach that tended to produce a skin
of exceptionally resistant texture, one in which
the bloom assumed a more than usually powdery
or fibrous character, was given protection against
the enemies, and thus preserved where fruit with
smoother skin was destroyed.
Under these circumstances, the incipient fuzz
on the peach would serve as material for the oper-
ation of natural selection, and a race of peaches
bearing fuzzy-skinned fruit would presently sup-
plant the tribe of smooth-skinned peaches.
Something like this, I suspect, we should find
to be the history of evolution of the fuzzy-skinned
peach, could we look with some necromantic mi-
croscope into the germinal center of the peach
seed and translate the marvelous history of end-
less generations of peaches, back to the beginning,
that is therein recorded.
[148]
Late Clingstone
Peach
This crossbred peach
has the merit of ripen-
ing very late, thus extend-
ing the peach season. It
also has size, good form,
and fine quality of flesh
in its favor. The chief de-
fect is that it is a cling-
stone. This defect may be
remedied in the offspring,
by combination with a
freestone variety.
LUTHER BURBANK
There is no such microscope as this, of course.
But we can, in a sense, perform the same necro-
mantic feat, and lay bare the mysteries of the
history of the evolution of the race of peaches, in
a quite different manner.
If you have read the earlier chapters of this
work, you will know that the method I have in
mind is the familiar one of causing the germ
plasm of the peach, with its weird record of past
events, to blend with the germ plasm of another
tribe of plants having a somewhat different his-
tory; in order that the conflict of tendencies thus
brought about (as we used to say; or the blending
of hereditary factors, to use the popular phrase of
the moment), shall bring to the surface and make
tangible in the hybrids of a new generation, the
traits that were submerged and hidden in the in-
dividual plant before us.
And when this familiar yet no less wonderful
test is applied, we learn, among other things, that
the peach which now holds to its fuzzy coating so
tenaciously, at one time had a cheek as smooth as
that of any other fruit. For among the offspring
that appear as the result of blending peach strains,
there now and again is one that bears smooth
fruit.
Moreover, the smooth fruit that thus appears is
closely similar to another fruit which, from its
[150]
ON PEACHES AND NECTARINES
general appearance, would be declared by any
competent observer to be a close relative of the
peach, namely, the nectarine.
So this bit of evidence from heredity—this
freak of atavism—may be taken as furnishing
substantial evidence that the ancestor of the nec-
tarine was also the ancestor of the peach. Or,
stated otherwise, that the peach is in reality a
modified nectarine. It may be added that both
are undoubtedly modified from a plum-peach-
apricot-almond ancestor.
That the nectarine, rather than the peach, rep-
resents the ancestral form is witnessed by the fact
that the nectarine is rarely observed—at least in
my experience—to produce a fuzzy fruit, however
closely it may otherwise simulate the peach. And,
of course, this evidence is in keeping with the
natural inference one would draw from the fact
that pulp fruits in general have smooth skins, or
skins with at most a delicate bloom quite lacking
the texture of the peach’s almost woolly covering.
THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS
In any event, there can be no question that the
peach and the nectarine are very closely related;
in fact, they are generally classified as a single
species, the trees differing very slightly in any re-
spect, the only difference being in the fruit.
It is probably but a short time, as compared
151]
LUTHER BURBANK
with the entire stretch of their racial histories,
since the two fruits branched from the same stem.
And so it is quite to be expected that the two
would readily cross. In point of fact, the experi-
ment of cross-pollenizing is so readily performed
that it is very often carried out by the bees.
The hand pollenizer may make the test suc-
cessfully without the slightest difficulty.
I was led to experiment along this line by the
recollection of an old peach tree called a “Meloco-
toon”, four of which stood in our home garden in
New England, and one of which, as I well recall,
had a single branch high up in the tree that al-
ways bore a fruit quite different from the peaches
with which its other branches were laden. This
anomalous fruit, which appeared as a “bud-
sport” was in fact a nectarine.
I had learned also that when peaches and nec-
tarines were grown in the same neighborhood, one
could never be certain as to which fruit would
grow when the seed of either fruit is planted.
You may plant a peach seed and grow a nec-
tarine tree; or, far less frequently, you may grow
a peach tree from a nectarine seed. |
The explanation, of course, is that the two
tribes are constantly intercrossed when growing
side by side, through the agency of the bees.
Pondering these facts, I determined to make
[152]
;
Pay
r
=
a
+
>
The National
Peach
This crossbred peach
was named National
because of its varied ex-
cellent qualities; in par-
ticular its adaptability to
different climates, making
it available for growth in
widely different sections of
the United States. It is a
peach of average size, but
of exceptional qualities of
flesh. As compared with
some other crossbred
peaches, it is some-
what lacking
in color.
LUTHER BURBANK
some definite experiments in hybridizing. I first
selected for the experiment the white nectarine
and the Muir peach. In 1895 numerous crosses
were made, using principally the white nectarine
pollen to fertilize the blossoms of the Muir peach,
a very hardy, vigorous, abundantly productive
variety of the peach that is largely cultivated in
California.
The white nectarine has a rich flavor, but it is
too acid to eat without cooking. It is of large
size, has a large stone, and white flesh, with per-
fectly smooth white skin. The Muir peach, on the
other hand, is very sweet, with firm yellow flesh,
and an unusually small, free stone. A tree of this
variety is unusually hardy, long-lived, and im-
mune from that pest of the peach orchard, curl-
leaf. It may be grown in a large variety of soils
in locations where other peaches and nectarines
often fail.
The offspring of this union of nectarine and
peach in due course came to fruiting age, and in
some cases the fruit they bore was found to be of
a quality superior to that of any peach or necta-
rine at that time ever seen. In the second and
third generation there appeared a varied com-
pany, showing remarkable new combinations of
qualities, and anomalies of form, size, color and
flavor.
[154]
The Lemon Muir
Peach
This seedling of the
familiar Muir peach
has many qualities to rec-
ommend it. It was given
the name Lemon Muir be-
cause of the lemon tint
which is well reproduced
in this color photograph,
and partly also because of
the somewhat lemon-
like form of the
fruit itself.
LUTHER BURBANK
Many of them combined the sweet yellow flesh
of the peach and the acid quality of the nectarine,
producing delectable and altogether novel flavors.
SMOOTH-SKINNED PEACH Hysrips
There are now large numbers of these cross-
bred peach-nectarines on my place, some of them
being of the fifth and sixth generation from the
original crossing.
Some have a crimson leaf like that of the
crimson-leaved peach.
Some that have the characteristic rough stone
of the peach, retain the smooth skin of the nec-
tarine. These constitute a smooth-skinned vari-
ety of peach such as the visitor with the aversion
to fuzzy skin longed for.
First and last, these hybrids show almost all
possible combinations of a score or so of qualities
as to which the two fruits in their divers varieties
differ. Among these there are some that are of
such desirability as to make the fruits worthy of
introduction, notwithstanding the very excellent
assortment of peaches already on the market.
The first member of the hybrid company to be
sent out into the world was named the Opulent.
It grew on a vigorous tree that bore abund-
antly even when quite young, and produced a full
crop of superlatively luscious fruit each season,
ripening here about July 30th. The fruit has a
[156]
An Unnamed
Peach
In his extensive ex-
periments in the breed-
ing of peaches, Mr. Bur-
bank has of course pro-
duced many varieties that
have not been introduced.
The picture shows one
which certainly looks good
enough to eat, and is good
enough to eat, but it is
being subjected to further
tests before ils ulti-
mate fate is de-
termined.
LUTHER BURBANK
white skin with numerous beautiful dots and
shadings of light and dark crimson, and the flesh
is pale lemon yellow, suggesting a blend of the
deeper tint of the Muir peach and the white flesh
of the nectarine. In flavor the fruit has an in-
describably delicious quality that in my estimate
surpasses that of all other peaches. But it is too
soft for long shipment, although having all the
desirable qualities of a home fruit. The Opulent
has been acknowledged by all who have tested it
to be the best in quality of any peach ever pro-
duced.
The tree is unusually hardy. It has been culti-
vated as far north as Canada and has proved able
to endure a temperature of 40 degrees below zero,
bearing a full crop after other peaches in the same
locality were destroyed by the severity of the
winter.
Among the numerous seedlings from the Opu-
lent, some are white nectarines pure and simple,
some are red or pink nectarines, and some closely
resemble the Muir peach. Yet here and there one
differs from any known variety of peach or nec-
tarine.
Similar results have been obtained in a subse-
quent series of experiments, in which the white
nectarine was crossed with the early Crawford
and peaches of other varieties. These crosses pro-
[158]
Other Attractive
Foundlings
These are examples
of yet another variety
of peach that is still in the
testing orchard. The speci-
mens here shown speak for
themselves, and the reader
will not doubt that they
have many excellent quali-
ties. But Mr. Burbank’s
fixed rule is that a new
fruit must be equal to any
already in the market in
all qualities, and superior
in at least one quality; and
it has not yet been deter-
mined whether this par-
ticular fruit meets
this test.
LUTHER BURBANK
duced some seedlings of unusual size and good
quality. The trees are nearly all resistant to curl-
leaf and mildew. As might be expected, the
seedlings from succeeding generations differ
widely. While nearly all possess one or more
desirable qualities, it is rare that any one com-
bines enough good qualities to entitle it to special
consideration.
THE UNION OF PEACH AND ALMOND
Another series of hybridizing experiments,
begun about eighteen years ago, used for the
original cross the purple-leaved peach and the
Languedoc almond.
In the first and second generations, the four or
five thousand seedlings produced had green leaves
like the almond.
In the succeeding generation, however, there
appeared a few seedlings having purple leaves
suggestive of those of the peach ancestor. A par-
ticularly dark one was saved. As is usual with the
peach and almond hybrids, this tree was very
fertile. One season I obtained more than 500
fruits from it.
In every respect this fruit was intermediate
between the peach and the almond.
About nine-tenths of the seedlings grown from
the fruit of this purple-leaved hybrid had purple
leaves like the parent plant; most of the others
[160]
ON PEACHES AND NECTARINES
had leaves of pure green, but a small proportion
showed leaves of an intermediate color.
Looking at the row of seedlings from a short
distance one would hardly perceive anything but
a line of deep crimson or purple. Some of the
individual seedlings were much darker than the
parent, being fully as dark as the original purple-
leaved peach. Most of the seedlings resemble the
peach in foliage, but some have longer and more
pointed leaves like the almond parent, and these
grow more rapidly than the others and have a
more upright appearance, in this respect also
resembling the almond.
Although the exact parentage of the hybrids
of the later generations of this combination of the
almond and the purple-leaved peach was not
traceable, and although no close record was kept
of precise numbers, it will be obvious that the
result of the first cross showed that, as between
green leaves and purple leaves, in the relations
of these two species, the influence of the green leaf
was prepotent or dominant.
This is perhaps what one would expect, con-
sidering that green is the normal color of leaves,
and purple exceptional.
The reappearance of the purple leaf in later
generations is, of course, precisely what would be
expected of a recessive character.
[161]
LUTHER BURBANK
In any event the reappearance of the purple
leaf, fully pigmented, after its submergence, af-
fords another interesting illustration of the seg-
regation of hereditary characters that we have
repeatedly had occasion to note in connection with
other experiments.
Cousins FroM THE ORIENT
Continuing the experiments in peach better-
ment, I not unnaturally turned to the Orient for
the material for further experiments in crossing.
There is a double-flowering peach that has
long been under cultivation in China and Japan.
It is a slender, willowy tree, generally with droop-
ing branches. The blossoms are about an inch and
a quarter across, snowy white, or pink, or deep
crimson. They are quite double, resembling little
roses, and they are produced in great profusion.
The trees, however, are dwarfed and ill-shaped;
they are also peculiarly subject to mildew and
curl-leaf.
The fruit of the flowering peach is somewhat
almond-shaped and unusually pointed. It has
flesh of light color and a large stone. The fruit
is hardly edible even when cooked.
I have taken particular pains to cross this
double flowering exotic with standard and the
new cross bred peaches, and have succeeded in
producing some fine varieties. The most striking
[162]
Big String
Nectarines
The nectarine is in
effect a smooth skinned
peach. It is believed that
the two fruits are really
identical superficially, and
have only somewhat re-
cently been modified
through selective breeding.
Nevertheless there are «b-
vious differences in the
peach and the nectarine,
and there is opportunity
for interesting experiments
in crossbreeding. Mr. Bur-
bank has taken full ad-
vantage of these opportu-
nities, and this picture
shows one of his many
interesting results.
LUTHER BURBANK
result, up to date, was a tree bearing a rich, rosy,
pink blossom, fully two inches in diameter, which
is produced in greatest abundance, on trees of
strong growth, which show no propensity to droop
like the oriental tree, and which appear to be
resistant to curl-leaf and mildew.
This large, vigorous, healthy tree, bearing a
profusion of bright pink flowers, has obvious or-
namental value. But in addition to this, this new
variety bears an abundance of fruit, large in size,
and almond-shaped, which is of fairly good qual-
ity when fresh, although scarcely to be compared
with standard peaches, but which when cooked
is probably unsurpassed by any peach, having a
delightful almond flavor.
This particular variety is a cross of the crim-
son flowering oriental peach and the hybrid Muir
peach, and is a product of the first generation.
Especial interest attaches to the results of
crossing the oriental peaches with peaches of the
occidental stock because, as in the case of so many
other fruits, the peach of the Orient is widely
divergent from the European type, although
doubtless both have the same remote origin. As
in the case of our other chief fruits, the native
home of the peach was doubtless southern and
central Asia and eastern Europe, and there was
a double migration in prehistoric days which re-
[164]
Bully Nectarine
The name may be
a trifle slangy, but there
is something about the
fruit that seems to justify
the name. It is a blunt,
round, prolific, sturdy, lus-
cious, wholesome fruit
—in short, a bully
nectarine.
LUTHER BURBANK
sulted in stocking China with peaches of one type
and Europe with quite another.
The peach most commonly grown in the United
States is usually spoken of as belonging to the
Persian race. The Chinese type of peach has been
variously tested in California, and for the most
part found wanting. The chief defect of the Ori-
ental variety is the pointed almond shape of its
fruit, and susceptibility to mildew and curl-leaf.
It will be recalled that the oriental pear showed
precisely the qualities of hardiness and resistance
to disease that the oriental peach notably lacks.
The difference, in all probability, is to be explained
by the different treatment the two fruits have
received in their Asiatic home. The pear has been
developed for its fruit, and the oriental taste de-
manded certain qualities of firmness and perhaps
slight astringency that might be said to be in
keeping with the natural character or propensity
of the wild fruit.
But in the case of the peach special develop-
ment has taken place along the line of flower pro-
duction. Doubtless more attention has been given
to this than to the question of fruit. And as with
most specialized races of plants, there are inci-
dental defects due to the selective breeding for a
single quality, and the overlooking of other
qualities.
[166]
ON PEACHES AND NECTARINES
But whatever the explanation, the fact remains
that the Chinese peach is not to be looked to as
introducing the elements of hardiness and virility.
Nevertheless in the southern states the Chinese
peach, which seems to be of tropical origin, thrives
and is even quite as popular as the Persian strains.
Fortunately some of the varieties of the Eu-
ropean stock are vigorous and hardy growers.
But the development of new varieties that will be
absolutely resistant to the diseases to which the
peach is peculiarly subject is a task that invites
the plant experimenter. I have already referred
to the success in this regard that attended some
of my hybridizing experiments.
My new peaches, named respectively the Leader
and the National, both of them crosses of the Muir
and Crawford stock, have been entirely free from
any suspicion of mildew or curl-leaf.
But there is demand for a great variety of
peaches, and it is highly desirable that the aver-
age stock of this important fruit should be greatly
improved in regard to virility.
That the peach may under favorable conditions
live to an old age and continue in bearing is dem-
onstrated by exceptional trees that are known to
be half a century old, yet still retain their vigor
and productiveness. When we contrast with this
the familiar fact that the average peach orchard
[167]
LUTHER BURBANK
bears only for a relatively short term of years—
often only ten or fifteen at most—the vast eco-
nomic importance of this possible improvement
will be quite obvious.
A STONELESS PEACH?
As to the fruit itself, there is one opportunity
for improvement that is particularly inviting—the
possibility of producing a stoneless peach.
The desirability of such a development, from
the standpoint of the peach consumer, requires
no demonstration. From the standpoint of the
tree itself, a reduction in the stone would be
highly important. It costs a peach tree to produce
a pound of stones probably as much as to produce
many pounds of pulp.
The drain on the vitality of the tree in pro-
ducing the stone that it no longer needs must take
from it in some measure the capacity for produc-
tion of fruit pulp that it might otherwise have.
The hybridizing experiments with the almond
have influenced the stone of the fruit in a sug-
gestive way. Some of my hybrid peaches have a
kernel that is almost as sweet and edible as the
kernel of the almond. As yet I have not secured
a peach having really good quality of flesh com-
bined with the edible seed. But that this combi-
nation might be effected, if one were to select for
it, admits of no question.
[168]
A Peach Triumph
Here is a peach
seedling, crossbred,
that is as good as it looks.
It represents one of Mr.
Burbank’s triumphs in the
betterment of a familiar
fruit. It is not a new crea-
tion, but it is improved all
along the line. Perhaps it
comes as near to the ideal
of what a peach should
be as any fruit
ever grown.
LUTHER BURBANK
And a peach retaining its recognized qualities
of flesh and having at its center an edible nut like
the almond with thin shell would obviously be a
desirable acquisition.
Such a combination of fruit and nut would be
doubly desirable if the stone that surrounds the
kernel can be eliminated as it has been eliminated
in the stoneless plums.
As yet very little has been accomplished in this
direction. ‘There is, to be sure, a Bolivian peach
which is remarkable in that it has a globular stone
very little larger than a good-sized pea. The fruit
itself is of intermediate size and poor quality;
moreover, it is produced sparsely, and the tree is
peculiarly subject to the peach maladies. The
fruit has been thought hardly worth crossing with
our ordinary peaches on account of its inferior
qualities, yet the diminutive stone suggests that it
would be possible by such crossing to produce a
superior peach having an exceedingly small stone.
Time and patience would, of course, be re-
quired to carry out such an experiment, but its
results could hardly be in doubt.
It is possible, however, that the experiment of
reducing the size of the peach stone will prove
less inviting than the attempt to remove the stone
altogether. My success in producing the stoneless
plum points the way to a possible development
[170]
Nectarine-Peach Cross
This picture has peculiar interest as illustrating the great
diversity of form that may be shown by fruit of mixed heritage
growing on the same branch. As one parent is smooth-skinned and
the other fuzzy, interesting experiments may be carried out
in noting the way in which these qualities are
transmitted to different members of the
progeny, particularly in the sec-
ond generation.
LUTHER BURBANK
through which the peach also may at some time
become stoneless.
And it is not unlikely that the Bolivian pea-
stone peach, which has shown a propensity to
minimize the stone, may be utilized advanta-
geously in the course of these experiments.
It is true that no stoneless peach of whatever
quality is known, comparable to the original wild
builace of Europe, that gave the opportunity in
the development of the stoneless plum. But, for-
tunately, I have been able to demonstrate that the
peach may be hybridized with the plum. I have
made the hybridization successfully with both the
Japanese plum and the Chickasaw plum.
Should it prove impossible to hybridize the
peach directly with a stoneless plum, one of these
peach-plum hybrids might perhaps be made to
bridge the gap.
No doubt a vast deal of ingenuity would be
required to find the combination that would work
out successfully. But it was shown in the case of
the stoneless plum that it was possible to re-
assemble the good qualities of the fruit of one
parent and the stoneless condition of the other
in the progeny of the hybrids of later generations.
There is no obvious reason why the same thing
might not be done in the case of the peach.
The possibility seems the greater because the
[172]
Nectarine-Peach
Cross
This picture shows
the crossbred fruit cut
open, revealing the stone.
It will be seen that in
these specimens the stone
is unduly large, and that
the fruit clings to the stem.
Where peaches and nec-
tarines are growing in the
same neighborhood, cross-
breeding experiments are
often made by the bees,
without human
interference.
LUTHER BURBANK
peach has been cultivated in so many different
regions and for so many different purposes that
it is highly variable. Its affinity with other stone
fruits has been illustrated over and over in the
story of hybridizing experiments already related.
So it seems at least within the possibilities
that a way may be found to combine the stoneless
condition which has now been bred into the germ
plasm of one member of the stone-fruit family,
with the recognized qualities of the peach, in a
hybrid—produced, no doubt, only after a series
of experiments extending over many years—that
will represent the ideal of a stoneless peach.
If the qualities of the almond seed were also
bred into the combination, the final product—a
fruit having the matchless flavor of the peach, a
perfectly smooth skin, and a stoneless seed of de-
licious edible quality—would assuredly be the
paragon of orchard fruits. That such a fruit will
ultimately be produced there can be little doubt.
When we reflect on the long gap that separates the
peach of to-day from its primitive wild ancestor,
we heed not regard such further development as
that just suggested as being very formidable.
But, of course, there is a time element that can-
not be ignored.
So here, as with other orchard fruits, it is only
such experimenters as have the gift of patience
[174]
ON PEACHES AND NECTARINES
who can enter the field with prospect of success.
Granted that endowment, however, and a rea-
sonable comprehension of the principles of plant
breeding already presented, any intelligent ama-
teur may undertake experiments in the further
education of the peach that may well lead to re-
sults of the highest interest and of notable
economic importance.
—The peach with its luscious
meat, the nectarine with its
smooth skin, the almond with
its delightful kernel, and the
stoneless plum with its un-
sheathed seed—who will breed
these together and thus pro-
duce a unique and valuable
fruit-nut?
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THE APPLE—A FRuIT WORTHY
OF
STILL FURTHER IMPROVEMENT
New ApPLes AND How To MAKE THEM
Nomenclature of the Apple you would find
that about eight thousand varieties of this
fruit are listed by name,—not counting synonyms,
of which each variety has several.
And you would receive assurance that the cat-
alogue includes only such selected varieties as
have attracted more or less attention in this coun-
try alone.
After scanning this list you might be excused
if you felt disposed to turn your attention to some
other fruit. An orchard product that already pos-
sesses eight thousand named varieties may not
seem at first glance to offer a very good opening
for the plant developer. It may reasonably be
supposed to be a fruit that is already pretty well
developed.
And in point of fact there is no disputing that
I: YOU were to look in Regan’s book on the
[VotumE IV—Cuapter VI]
LUTHER BURBANK
the apple is a well-developed fruit. There are
varieties of almost every supposable size and color
and flavor and degree of early or late ripening,
as the case may be, and of keeping quality. Yet
it would be going much too far to say that nothing
remains to be done. There are plenty of oppor-
tunities for the plant developer in dealing with
this fruit, as I shall attempt to show in a moment.
But before taking up that aspect of the matter
in detail it will be worth while to clarify the sit-
uation by a few words of comment as to the eight
thousand varieties of apples that make such an
imposing array on the pages of the cataloguer.
VARIETIES VERSUS INDIVIDUAL TYPES
The average purchaser and consumer of fruit
probably has very vague notions as to what is the
real status of the particular variety of apple that
especially appeals to him.
He finds his favorite fruit—be it Baldwin or
Northern Spy or Greening or Gravenstein or what
not—in the market year after year at a given sea-
son. He sees that each fruit is always of approxi-
mately the same size, and color, and flavor. The
differences between the named varieties are so
radical that they could not possibly be overlooked.
A greening apple, for example, bears much less
superficial resemblance to a snow apple than it
bears to a quince; and the average purchaser
[178]
ON THE APPLE
might be excused if he supposed these two apples,
along with numberless other specialized varieties,
to represent forms as distinct from each other as,
let us say, blackberries are distinct from rasp-
berries or oranges from lemons.
But in reality the status of even the best market
“varieties” of apples is quite different from this.
It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that
each “variety” of apple manifests the peculiari-
ties of an individual rather than those of a race.
We have already had our attention called more
than once to the fact that the apple, in common
with most other cultivated fruits, does not breed
true from the seed.
It has been pointed out that we could not se-
cure an orchard of Baldwins by planting the seeds
of the Baldwin.
In a word, the fact has been emphasized that
the conventional and necessary method of propa-
gating the different varieties of apples is by bud-
ding or grafting, or by the equivalent method of
sprouting slips or twigs. And attention has fur-
thermore been drawn to the fact that this method
of propagation may be regarded as the division
of an individual that has the property of restoring
lost parts and continuing its growth indefinitely
rather than propagation through a succession of
generations.
[179]
LUTHER BURBANK
It has been suggested that all trees that repre-
sent a particular variety of cultivated fruit—say
all Baldwin apple trees or all Seckel pears—are
separated parts of the original tree of correspond-
ing variety, and not descendants of that tree.
Holding to this point of view, then, it is clear
that the different “varieties” of apples might, from
a biological standpoint, be classified as individuals
rather than as races.
Their inability to reproduce themselves in off-
spring through the ordinary processes of genera-
tion denies them the rank of races or varieties
proper, let alone the rank of species.
And after all the difference in appearance be-
tween two apples that rank in the catalogs as
specific varieties is not greater than we sometimes
see manifested between brothers and sisters of a
human family. A man more than six feet tall
with florid complexion, light blue eyes, and flaxen
hair, certainly represents a type quite different
from that represented by a woman less than five
feet tall with swarthy complexion and black eyes
and hair. Yet we sometimes see such divergences
as these between a son and daughter of the same
parents.
ORIGIN OF THE DIVERSIFIED TYPES
We shall gain a somewhat truer conception of
the meaning of our apple catalog, then, if we
[180]
Mr. Burbank’s
South Apple
This crossbred seed-
ling, while lacking some
qualities, notably of size,
that characterize other
seedlings in Mr. Burbank’s
orchard, it has merits that
have on the whole made
its introduction desirable.
It is acknowledged to be
a fruit of great merit in
the regions where it
can be success-
fully grown.
LUTHER BURBANK
think of each listed variety as having the status of
an individual rather than that of a race.
The diversity of individul types becomes ex-
plicable if we consider the history of their devel-
opment. The apple has been under cultivation
for some thousands of years. It has qualities that
have made it a favorite with successive generations
throughout the entire period. It has been taken
everywhere with migrating races of men—it was
brought to America, for example—until it girdled
the globe and found its way almost to the Arctic
Circle.
The different races of apples thus developed
have been from time to time intermingled through
migrations of the peoples who cultivated the fruit,
many of whom, doubtless from the earliest period,
carried it with them in a dried state on their voy-
ages, and thus incidentally transported its seeds
and carried it into new regions.
The varieties thus brought together have been
cross-pollenized by the bees, and so the tendency
to vary and to keep a great variety of ancestral
traits in evidence has been perpetuated.
Finally, in modern times there has been per-
haps more attention given the apple by the horti-
culturist than to any other single orchard fruit.
The qualities of the apple and its adaptation to
all tastes, zones, and soils naturally account for
[182]
Winterstein Apple
This well-known va-
riety of apple is con-
sidered by Mr. Burbank to
be in some respects supe-
rior to almost any other
of the familiar cultivated
varieties. He has used it
very extensively in his
crossbreeding experiments,
and its blood enters into
the heritage of nearly
all of his best
seedlings.
LUTHER BURBANK
this. And the result is recorded in the present day
lists of the cataloguer. Whenever, through the
chance blending of favorable ancestral strains an
exceptional individual has appeared, cions have
been cut from that individual and grafted on other
trees, and new cions cut from this and again
grafted, until the fruit of this individual grows on
so many different trees and in so many different
regions that its peculiar qualities are thought of
as representing an established variety rather than
an individual personality.
But if you will gather the seed from the apples
of a single tree of even the best market “variety”
in any given season, and will plant these seeds,
you may have, when the seedlings come to fruit-
ing, new “varieties” of apple, each differing from
all its fellows, in such profusion that you may, if
you so desire, exhaust your ingenuity in finding
new names and publish a catalog of your own
with a list of eight thousand or so “varieties” of
apple that no one hitherto has ever seen or
heard of.
That simple but rather startling fact brings
into sharp relief the difference between the mean-
ing of the word “variety” as applied to such a
fruit as the apple and the meaning of the same
word as applied to races, of plants in a state of
nature.
[184]
Burbank Seedling
Apples
These seedlings, par-
ticularly the one at
the left, show the influence
of the Winterstein parent.
They are of complex her-
itage, however, and have
many characteristics that
cannot be traced to the
Winterstein. The _ speci-
mens here shown repre-
sent an intermediate stage
in the breeding experi-
ments, and they have not
individually been intro-
duced or named.
LUTHER BURBANK
The seed of a plant of a valid wild variety
(sub-species), or the seed of a hundred plants of
that variety intermixed, will produce a generation
of offspring which, though they number thousands
or millions, all bear striking resemblance in their
essential qualities of shape and leaf and flower
and fruit to the parents from which they sprang
and to one another.
This is the fundamental difference.
It is a difference that should be borne con-
stantly in mind when we use the convenient word
“variety” in connection with an orchard fruit.
Perhaps it is unfortunate that the word has been
applied with this double meaning; but it is ob-
viously convenient, and if properly interpreted
it may be used without danger of confusion of
ideas.
From GERM CELLS To APPLES
That the potentialities of numberless new va-
rieties lie hidden in the pollen grains and ovules
of a single flower-cluster is a thought that makes
strange appeal to the imagination of the intelli-
gent plant developer.
When he pollenizes a flower he is bringing to-
gether two germinal microcosms each of which,
rightly viewed, is a universe within itself.
He is dealing with individual life histories and
with the histories of races.
[186]
The Roman
Beauty Apple
This excellent va-
riety of apple shows
a good deal of diversity,
Particularly as regards col-
or, in individual speci-
mens, as the two here
shown will suggest. The
fruit has qualities that
commend it, both for its
own sake, and as a Parent
in breeding experiments
for the development
of new varieties,
LUTHER BURBANK
He is performing, as I said before, the most
marvelous of all experiments.
He deals with the same matter with which the
chemist deals in his laboratory; but with this mat-
ter aggregated into new and wonderful combina-
tions which alone make possible those responses
to the environment and that primeval capacity for
growth and of self-reproduction that differentiates
what we call living tissue from the matter out of
which it is constructed.
But if the plant experimenter must be allowed
to indulge in such visions he must none the less
remember that the microcosm of the germ cell
represents after all only a transitory and transi-
tional phase in the life cycle of the organisms with
which he deals.
He may love to ponder over the mysteries of
the nucleus of the germ cell, but he cannot offer
that nucleus for sale in the market.
The tangible product of his investigations, the
one that will have commercial importance, must
find representation in germ cells that have in-
finitely multiplied until their descendants are
piled together in such unthinkable numbers that
they make up the structure of visible plants, and,—
to meet the exigencies of the case under consider-
ation,—of visible and tangible fruits of the or-
chard.
[188]
Seedling Apples
If you wish to raise
new varieties of ap-
ples, it is quite possible
to do so without practicing
cross-fertilization. The cul-
tivated varieties are so
mixed in their heritage
that nothing more is nec-
essary than to plant seeds
of almost any variety to
secure a great number of
aberrant new types. The
ones here shown are
seedlings of the
Winterstein,
LUTHER BURBANK
To be quite specific, and to bring us back di-
rectly to the practicalities of the subject in hand,
the development of the germ cell must have led
to the production of the particular fruit called
the apple.
What, then, practically does there remain for
the plant investigator to do in the apple orchard?
With eight thousand varieties of apple on the
market, just how shall we come in competition
and produce a new variety that will commend
itself as having some points of superiority to any
existing? Unless we can do that, it assuredly is
not worth while to cumber the market with a new
apple. There are enough inferior fruits already
in the field. Let us by all means refrain from
adding to their number.
What has been said suggests that the task ahead
of us, in the perfectionment of the apple, does not
lack difficulties. As a tangible illustration of the
extent of these difficulties, I may note that I have
grown on my experiment farms not fewer than
50,000 seedling apples, from the best standard va-
rieties, since 1886, when I first definitely turned
attention to this fruit; and that out of the entire
number a single dozen now stand out somewhat
prominently as being superior.
There are others, to be sure, not yet come to
the fruiting age, that may surpass any yet pro-
[190]
ON THE APPLE
duced in a combination of good qualities. Some
of the individuals improve in certain points from
year to year, and reveal new strength in certain
valued characters, while others may fail to fulfil
their early promise. The test must extend over a
series of years, after the trees have commenced
to bear, and each new strength or weakness in
every direction must be noted with unflinching
fidelity.
With the record of my own experiments as a
guide, let us briefly glance over the field, to gain
such clues as we may to the opportunities that still
lie open for the betterment of this fruit.
A Few PracticaL HInts
Great emphasis has been laid on the fact that
apples do not breed true from seed. It should be
noted, however, that some varieties are much more
nearly fixed than others. The Fameuse, Graven-
stein, Garden Royal, and Golden Russet may be
named among those that tend to reproduce a good
many of their characteristics in their seedlings.
Yet from any of these there may be produced
apples showing almost every possible variation
as to size, shape, acidity, flavor, and color. And
so the growth of seedlings will be undertaken only
for the purpose of securing new variations or to
supply stocks on which to graft cions from old
ones.
[191]
LUTHER BURBANK
In raising apple seedlings to obtain improved
varieties it is best to select seed from some one
standard apple that already possesses most of the ©
good qualities sought in the improvement, because
comparative tests are more easily made from one
variety than from mixed seed. There is much
variation among different varieties as to keeping
qualities of the seed and characteristics of the
seedlings. Seedlings of the Baldwin, for example,
are peculiarly subject to mildew; seedlings of the
Newtown are usually rather slow and slender
growers.
As a general rule it may be said that the seeds
of winter apples have a greater tendency to pro-
duce winter apples than summer apples, whereas
summer apples are almost as likely to produce
winter varieties as to reproduce their own quali-
ties as to time of bearing.
Sweet apples are quite often produced from
the seeds of sour ones and vice versa.
The Yellow Bellflower produces a large pro-
portion of seedlings good in most respects, and
this is true also of the Newtown Pippin, Hubbards-
ton, the Rhode Island Greening, Roxbury Russet,
Haas Queen, William’s Favorite, Swaar, Rambo,
Fameuse, Lyscom, Alexander, Palmer, and Wag-
ener. Especially fine seedlings have been obtained
from the Garden Royal, Fameuse, Golden Russet,
More Seedling
Apples
These are seedlings
of a quite different
type from those shown in
the preceding picture. They
show the mixed heritage
that characterizes mest of
the Burbank seedlings. Al-
though of excellent quality,
the ones here shown have
not been introduced or
specifically named.
LUTHER BURBANK
Wagener, and in particular the Gravenstein and
the Newtown Pippin. Usually the weak point in
Northern Spy seedlings is poor quality, notwith-
standing its own exquisite quality.
One can be almost certain of producing some
early bearing seedlings, which will yield fruit of
good quality, though lacking in size, from the
Golden Russet, Garden Royal, or the Fameuse,
and without raising a great number of seedlings.
Apple seeds, like all other fruit seeds, germi-
nate more readily if not dried too thoroughly. The
best method is to place them when fresh, after
thorough cleaning, in a box of slightly moist saw-
dust or coarse sand, moist enough to keep the
seeds from drying, but not moist enough to cause
germination or to induce mold or decay. Kept in
this way in a cool place until desired for plant-
ing, they will germinate with unusual vigor.
If the apple seeds are wanted in large quanti-
ties, crush the fruit in a cider mill and wash the
seeds from the pomace. When only a few seeds
are to be taken from rare specimens of apples, the
seeds are usually removed by hand. The seeds
may be planted in the open field as early as pos-
sible in the spring in rows three or four feet apart,
if cultivation is to be done with horse plows. Ten
to fourteen inches apart is sufficient space for
hand cultivation.
[194]
ON THE APPLE
Details as to methods of planting and care of
the seedlings have already been given in a sep-
arate chapter and need not be repeated here. No
special cultural directions are required in growing
the apple seedlings. They are cared for on my
farms very much as peas and beans are cared for,
and they are as easily grown.
It may be well, however, to inspect the young
seedlings occasionally and to remove all weak or
slow-growing ones and those having slender stems
and thin, small leaves; and in particular any that
show the slightest evidence of mildew.
It is not desirable to treat seedlings that are
grown for the production of new varieties with
fungicides; the persistent aim should be to pro-
duce trees that are thoroughly resistant to fungoid
diseases.
The seedlings that show large, thick leaves and
thick, fat, prominent buds placed not too far
apart, combined with stocky, short-jointed, juicy
wood, are the ones most likely to be valuable.
Let us emphasize again that in fruiting the
seedlings an enormous amount of time and valu-
able space can be saved if they are grafted upon
large bearing trees. I am accustomed to take one
or two good cions from each of the selected seed-
lings at the end of the first season’s growth, graft-
ing them into a bearing tree on branches a quar-
[195]
LUTHER BURBANK
ter-inch or at most a half-inch in diameter. Thus
placed, they will begin bearing in from two to
four years; whereas if placed upon the large
branches a much longer period would be required.
By this method I have tested as many as 526
varieties by actual count at the same time upon a
single tree.
Thus twenty thousand or more varieties may
be tested at once on a single acre. The same trees
may serve in this way over and over indefinitely.
It would be well if fruit growers in each geo-
graphical section would raise and test new seed-
lings, and also introduce and experiment with
new varieties produced elsewhere, aiming always
to select those best adapted to the requirements
of the particular locality. In this way many lo-
calities where the apple cannot be grown today
might produce thriving orchards.
MAKING Harpy APPLES
The apple is relatively hardy, but improve-
ment is still possible in the way of producing va-
rieties that will stand the excessive cold of our
northern winters. The work of crossing hardy
Russian apples and also the hardy American crab
with the better varieties of apples is now being
carried on quite extensively, especially in Iowa.
By this means some good varieties have been pro-
duced that are especially acapted to withstand the
[196]
Nameless Beauties
These Burbank seed-
lings are also name-
less, although they would
merit introduction were it
not that there are already
so many excellent varieties
of apples on the market.
As it is, they have proved
useful in further cross-
breeding experiments.
LUTHER BURBANK
extremes of temperature of the northern Missis-
sippi Valley, and others are in prospect.
Especial efforts are being made, also, to de-
velop varieties that will be immune to the attacks
of the insect pest known as the woolly aphis,
which does great damage in apple orchards, es-
pecially on heavy soils and in moist climates. This
pest is relatively harmless to the treetops, but does
great damage when it infests the roots of a tree.
Because of the immunity of the pear to the at-
tacks of the woolly aphis, I have made many at-
tempts to find a variety of pear that would serve
as stocks on which to graft apples. In a very few
cases the grafts have taken well at first, but the
final result was a failure, from a commercial
standpoint. It is possible that a variety of pear
will eventually be found which will be congenial
to the various varieties of apples; and, if so, the
problem of combatting the woolly aphis will have
been solved.
My experiments consisted in growing seedling
pears to get new varieties on which to graft the
apples. This is probably the only way to approach
the subject, for attempts have been made with
practically all the existing varieties of pears, and
in every case the result has been failure.
Fortunately there is one well-known variety of
apple, the Northern Spy, that is aphis-proof. Trees
[198]
Two Fine
Specimens
The chance that
there may be among
your seedlings some trees
that bear apples like these
should give peculiar inter-
est to the experiment in
the production of new va-
rieties. These are Burbank
seedlings of heritage so
complex it would be dif-
ficult to trace their
precise ante-
cedents.
LUTHER BURBANK
of this variety are never injured by these insects,
even when planted beside trees seriously infected.
It has been found expedient, therefore, to graft
other varieties on roots of the Northern Spy, and
an orchard that has practical immunity to the at-
tacks of the aphis may thus be produced.
Unfortunately the seedlings of the Northern
Spy do not generally inherit this quality of resist-
ance to the aphis, so it is necessary to grow the
roots from cuttings.
Apple twigs do not root very readily, but if
cuttings from vigorous Northern Spy branches
are placed in the soil and allowed to grow for a
year or longer they develop a good root system
and the roots may be severed into small pieces,
each of which will produce a stock upon which
grafts of any variety may be placed.
Hysrip APPLES
I have experimented very extensively, as al-
ready noted, with the crossing of different familiar
varieties of apple, and have produced several new
varieties that have been deemed worthy of intro-
duction.
But my most interesting experiments have had
to do with the wider hybridization in which one
or another variety of cultivated apple has been
crossed with a related species. In endeavoring
to introduce new traits I imported in 1890 all of
[200]
More Nondescripts
Illustrating the wide
diversity among apples
of the same inheritance.
The apple has been so long
under cultivation and has
been developed under such
diversified conditions of
soil and climate, that its
germ plasm contains mis-
cellaneous factors of great
diversity. Just which ones
of these factors will make
themselves marifest in any
given case, it is impossible
to say, and the uncertainty
adds zest to the work of
the fruit developer.
LUTHER BURBANK
the best varieties of apples theretofore originated
in Australia and New Zealand.
It was necessary to graft these cions into older
trees to test the fruit, and some very curious re-
sults were observed.
Most of these new varieties from another
hemisphere appeared to be surprised to find the
winter over so soon and the spring now opening
upon them. Some varieties immediately put out
buds and blossoms and continued to do so at inter-
vals throughout the summer; others stubbornly
declined to bud or blossom until nearly the begin-
ning of the following spring. For two or three
years thereafter all seemed quite confused and
disturbed by the transposition of the seasons; but
ultimately they became adjusted to the new order
of things. One or two of them have proved to
be unusually fine apples, and are now thriving
well in northern Sonoma and Mendocina Coun-
ties.
About 1894 I began experimenting with our
native crabs, crossing them with pollen of our best
cultivated apples, more to see what would result
than with any expectation of securing improved
commercial varieties.
One striking result was produced by using the
pollen of the Gravenstein. Numerous seedlings
were thus produced from this little native crab.
[202]
Large and
Toothsome
These Burbank seed-
lings represent several
generations of selective
breeding and general en-
couragement. They taste
as good as they look, and
they are worthy of a
place in any orchard
or on any table.
LUTHER BURBANK
Strange to say, among the seedlings of the first
generation was an apple which was fully as large
as the Gravenstein and very much like it, except
that, though quite good for a short time just be-
fore ripening, it changed rapidly to a punky or
mealy state. Others were about halfway between
the two species in size, color, quality, growth, and
other characteristics, both of trees and fruits in
all variations.
But among the second-generation seedlings
raised from these hybrids some fairly good apples
were produced. In form, some almost duplicated
the Gravenstein itself; very few of them resembled
the true wild crab type, except that nearly all had
a certain crablike acidity and lack of flavor.
Some of these hybrids are still growing on my
Sebastopol farm. No one of them gives promise
of being worthy of introduction, but it is not un-
likely that something of value may be developed
from this stock by further hybridizations and se-
lections. The wild crab has certain qualities of
hardiness and prolific bearing that might be of
value in combination with the fruiting qualities
of some cultivated variety. This, at all events, is
a line of investigation that offers opportunity for
further tests.
Doubtless the most interesting of these hybrid-
izing experiments with the apple tree are those in
[204]
Gold Ridge Apple
This Burbank cross-
bred apple, unlike a
good many others that
have been shewn, does not
reveal the characteristics
of the Winterstein, at least
as to color, although it has
strains of that apple in its
heritage. Mr. Burbank
thinks so well of this par-
ticular variety, that he has
given it the name of his
Gold Ridge Farm, where
his chief orchards are lo-
cated. It illustrates the
possibility of developing
valuable new _ varieties,
even of this most widely
cultivated of fruits.
LUTHER BURBANK
which this species was crossed with the quince
and with the pear.
I have grown numerous seedlings from a cross
of the apple and the common quince, Cydonia
vulgaris, and also the giant Chinese quince,
Cydonia sinensis. This cross was made both ways
in both cases. This is a cross between genera.
Some of these hybrid seedlings grew quite
rapidly. The growth was generally peculiar, being
compact and stubby, and often with an unhealthy
appearance, especiaily towards the last of the
season. The foliage and bark most often resem-
bled the quince.
I expected good results from these interesting
hybrids, but not one ever produced even a blos-
som. The developments were the same in all seed-
lings, however the cross was made. After a few
years they would decline and die, whether grafted
on the quince or the apple or growing on their
own roots.
Several varieties of apples were also crossed
with the Bartlett and other pears. This is also a
bigeneric hybrid, and the result was in the end
similar to that of crossing the apple and the
quince. Most of these seedlings were abnormal
in their growth. They were generally dwarfed,
but in some cases exceedingly rapid growers were
produced, especially when the Bartlett pear was
[206]
Extremes of
Development
The Burbank apple
at the left is one of
the largest apples ever
grown; whereas the wild
apples at the right are
fruits of insignificant size.
Note that the small apples
are nearly all seeds, where-
as the large apple is nearly
all pulp. No more striking
example could be given of
the possibility of modify-
ing a fruit through se-
lective breeding. The wild
apple may still be of serv-
ice as a hybridizing agent
in the development of
hardy strains of cul-
tivated apples.
LUTHER BURBANK
crossed with the apple. But none of them gave
any indication of producing blossoms, let alone
fruit. These, like the quince-apple hybrid seed-
lings, being cnly cumberers of ground which was
needed for other purposes, were destroyed.
It will be seen, then, that nothing of practical
importance came of my experiments in hybridiz-
ing the apple with its remoter cousins. Never-
theless the proof that such hybridization is pos-
sible must be regarded as highly interesting. It
seems by no means unlikely that further tests
along these lines might result in revealing some
varieties of these various fruits that would com-
bine more advantageously and produce fertile off-
spring.
As I have said in another connection, there is
perhaps no opportunity open to the amateur fruit
grower that suggests greater possibilities of really
important discoveries than this. Out of a union
of apple and quince or apple and pear might very
possibly come a new fruit that would constitute an
acquisition of the very greatest value to the or-
chardist.
But even if the practical or economic results
should prove meagre, such a series of experiments
might still have a large measure of scientific in-
terest, more than justifying the time and labor de-
voted to them. So little work—relatively speak-
[208]
Getting on in the
World
Three big cross-
bred Burbank apples
are here shown in compari-
son with three tiny wild
apples, the latter probably
not very different from
the parent forms from
which the cultivated apple
originated. Note the simi-
larity in the outward ap-
pearance of the fruit, rot-
withstanding the enor-
mous disparity
in size.
LUTHER BURBANK
ing—has hitherto been done in this line, that the
field may be said to be almost virgin. Opportunity
beckons the would-be plant developer alluringly.
And, fortunately, this is a case where the
material for experimentation is freely available.
Apples, pears and quinces grow in thousands of
dooryards. Thousands of men and women might
test their mating possibilities. There will be
stimulus of novelty and the lure of unknown goals
in such an endeavor.
—There are eight thousand
named varieties of the apple,
but who shall estimate the
uncounted opportunities for
further apple improvement?
THE TRANSFORMATION
OF THE QUINCE
Wuat Was ONLy A CookING Fruit Now DELIcious
Raw
formula for cooking the quince. His rule was
this: Take one quince, one barrel of sugar, and
sufficient water.
This rule was given, I hasten to explain, at a
time when my Pineapple quince had not been
developed.
Had Mr. Beecher tasted one of these perfected
quinces he would have seen that his joke no
longer had its former force. For my Pineapple
quince, and one or two others that have been de-
veloped even more recently, retain very little of
that acrid quality which Mr. Beecher’s barrel of
sugar was designed to hide.
On the contrary, the new quinces, when fully
ripe, are to be compared in texture of pulp and
in edibility with some of the best apples, rather
than with their quince forebears; and at the same
|: IS said that Henry Ward Beecher once gave a
[VotumMe [V—Cuapter VII]
LUTHER BURBANK
time they retain the matchless flavor that made
the quince a favorite fruit for jellies and pre-
serves even when its other qualities made it alto-
gether inedible before cooking.
Indeed, the new fruit not only retains the
indescribable but exquisite savor of its tribe, but
has taken on quite pronouncedly the flavor of the
pineapple, justifying its name in the estimate of
most persons who have eaten it.
The transformation thus effected in the quality
of the quince has been brought about through a
series of experiments that began as long ago as
1880. When I first gave the matter consideration
I reflected that the quince, although it had been
under cultivation for at least two thousand years,
had been distinctly neglected by the horticulturist.
There was a prevailing idea that the quince tree
would thrive on neglect, and that the inherent
qualities of the fruit were such as to place it hope-
lessly beyond the reach of experiment except as
material for cooking.
But I could see no good reasons why the quince
should not be improved somewhat as the apple
and pear had been.
So I commenced work by obtaining seeds of all
the best strains of quinces, including among others
the Orange, Angus, Portugal, Rae’s Mammoth,
West’s Mammoth, and Champion. All of these are
[212]
ON THE QUINCE
varieties derived from the common species which
the Romans called Mala Cydonia, or Cydonian
apple, because an improved variety came to them
from Cydon, in Crete. From this old Roman name
we have for the common quince the scientific name
of the present time, Cydonia vulgaris.
First SuccessFuL MatiINnGs
One of my earliest experiments was to cross
the Orange quince with the Portugal quince.
The Orange type is generally much more pro-
ductive than the Portugal, and the fruit is larger
and more pleasing in form, being nearly round
and quite smooth. It is also of a more attractive
color. On the other hand, the pear-shaped Portu-
gal quince, although having an objectionable rusty
coat, is of a better quality, having a very pleasing
flavor when cooked.
It seemed certain that from the combination of
these two varieties it might be possible, by subse-
quent selection, to produce a quince superior to
either.
Seedlings from this cross of Orange and Portu-
gal quinces were raised extensively for several
years.
Large trees upon which to graft and test them
all not being available, the selected ones were set
out on the Sebastopol place rather closely, in rows
about 4% feet apart. Although a thorough test
[213]
LUTHER BURBANK
could not be made in this way of all the varieties,
it was possible to make a very fair comparative
test. The poorer seedlings were from time to time
removed, leaving space for better development of
those that remained. Later some of the trees
whose fruit was not promising were used as
stocks on which to graft hybrid pears and other
seedlings.
By this method I have tested probably fifty
thousand quince seedlings.
The first important result of this experiment
in crossbreeding was the production of a quince
of large size from a seedling produced by pollen-
izing a Portugal quince with the Orange quince.
Among my seedlings one individual showed
marked superiority over its fellows even in the
seed-bed, by its unusual vigor and the rich green
of its large, finely formed foliage.
Among the entire lot of 700 cross-bred seed-
lings, this one alone proved really valuable.
The fruit it bore received the Wilder Medal at
the meeting of the American Pomological Society
at Washington, D. C., in September, 1891. It was
so generally admired and promised to be so valu-
able that Professor H. E. Van Deman, then Chief
of Division of Pomology, U. S. Department of Ag-
riculture, was pleased to have it named for him.
The Van Deman quince inherits great productiv-
[214]
“F
eo =!
>
Eg er
1!
iH
;
The Japanese Quince
Like a good many other fruit trees, the quince has been
modified by the Japanese in the direction of brilliant foliage
and beautiful flowers. It thus becomes an ornamental shrub in
addition to its fruit-bearing qualities.
LUTHER BURBANK
ity, size, nearly globular shape, smooth skin, and
attractive color from the Orange quince, while
it received its spicy flavor and tenderness from the
Portugal. It has continued to be extremely pro-
lific, and an unusually strong grower, and at the
present writing, 1914, it is quite generally pro-
nounced the best of all quinces, and the only
quince worth raising in the eastern states. It has
proved to be of remarkable hardiness and produc-
tiveness under the most adverse conditions.
Under favorable conditions the Van Deman
produces three distinct crops each season in Cali-
fornia.
The first or main crop ripens on my experi-
ment farm during the latter part of September.
The fruit of this first crop is of extremely large
size, often being over five inches in diameter, and
weighing 25 ounces.
The second crop ripens about November, and
the third a month later. With these later crops
the fruit is usually much smaller. But all are of
good flavor, texture, and quality. They bake as
quickly as apples, and are tender when thus pre-
pared.
The dried or canned fruit retains the much
desired quince flavor.
At the time when the Van Deman quince was
introduced, in 1893, I had growing for compari-
[216]
Fruit of the
Japanese Quince
The Oriental taste
in fruit is different
from the Occidental. As
a rule the fruits developed
in the East are somewhat
harder in texture, and
more acrid in quality than
those that have been de-
veloped in Europe and
America. There is less
difference in this regard,
however, in the case of the
quince than with some
other fruits, notably the
pear. The Japanese quince
has been used by Mr. Bur-
bank in crossbreeding ex-
periments in the devel-
opment of his per-
fected varieties.
LUTHER BURBANK
son trees of all the other varieties above men-
tioned. But no one of them bore fruit at all
comparable to the new variety.
The new tree, in addition to being a very pro-
lific bearer, also had the habit of early-fruiting.
Trees two years old have been reported as
bearing fruit.
From Florida a Van Deman quince is reported
that tock on eight feet of new growth within one
year from the time of planting. In Washington
two trees in their third season bore twenty fine
quinces weighing from twelve to fourteen ounces
each as their first crop, and a little later a second
crop declared to be quite equal to the other.
SEEDLING TESTS AND NEw Crosses
I had, of course, made crosses between various
other varieties in the quince orchard and in due
course developed other seedlings that showed
valuable characteristics.
I learned by experience to be able to select
seedlings of the quince, as of other fruit trees, by
observing the character of the leaf and stem.
Seedlings having leaves that are large, thick,
dark green, and glossy, and that show prominent
rounded buds and upright branches with thick,
bright wood are those that may be expected to pro-
duce the largest and finest fruit.
Werthless seedlings are known by the oppo-
[218]
Foliage of the Japanese Quince
The thick, fibrous leaves of the Japanese quince add to the
beauty of the tree. The branches, however, are likely to be
spiny. The quince appears to represent a somewhat more primitive
type of plant than most other of our cultivated fruits. Mr.
Burbank suggests that the cultivated quince of to-day is
in about the condition of development represented
by the pear of the Roman time.
LUTHER BURBANK
site characters. Seedlings having small, knotted,
twisted wood; slender, small, sharp buds; long
joints; woolly, wild-looking leaves, and irregular
rambling tendency of growth should be rejected,
as they will rarely produce fruit of any value.
There are notable exceptions to these rules of
correlation between twig and foliage and fruit-
quality, but, as a rule, the qualities just noted may
be depended upon to serve as useful guides.
My second important new quince was grown
as a seedling from Rae’s Mammoth. It was, I am
confident, a third generation seedling of a cross
between Rae’s Mammoth and the Portugal
quinces. Its immediate pollenate parentage is not
a matter of record, as a great number of cross-
bred guinces were under observation at the same
time, and specific record was kept only of the
first pollenations.
This offspring of Rae’s Mammoth was at first
called the Santa Rosa, but was subsequently re-
christened by the introducer as the Child’s quince.
It is remarkable for its great size and productive-
ness, for beauty of form, and for its pale lemon
yellow or almost white skin; also for the tender
flesh and delicious flavor of its fruit, and the di-
minutive size of the core.
So fine-grained and tender is the fruit, and so
free from the harsh acidity of the old quince, that
[220]
ON THE QUINCE
it is equal to some popular apples for eating raw,
and fully equal to the best apples or pears when
baked, stewed, or canned. It will cook as tender
as the best apple in five minutes. Moreover, it
makes a superior light-colored dried fruit.
In form the fruit is somewhat intermediate be-
tween the Portugal and Rae’s Mammoth, inherit-
ing from both parents; but in quality it is far su-
perior to either. This new variety has been rather
extensively distributed in the castern states. The
only complaint heard of it in the colder climates
is that it does not bear so well as in California,
but this is the case with all quinces. The soil and
climate of California are peculiarly hospitable to
this fruit.
THE PINEAPPLE QUINCE
I have elsewhere called attention to the fact
that once a tendency to variation has been intro-
duced by crossing among plants of a given com-
pany, the effect appears to be cumulative.
Thus opportunity is often given in later gen-
erations for selections that will lead to relatively
rapid progress along the desired line of develop-
ment.
Such was the case with the quinces. As selec-
tion proceeded one generation after another, the
tendency to improvement became more _ pro-
nounced. The new varieties already secured were
[221]
LUTHER BURBANK
a very great advance upon their progenitors, but
there ultimately appeared a seedling that pro-
duced a fruit far superior even to the very good
ones already introduced.
This superlative variety, which appeared as
the culminating product, for the moment at any
rate, of fifteen years of selective breeding, was
the one referred to at the beginning of this chapter.
Because of its peculiar flavor this new quince,
as already stated, was named the Pineapple.
It is additionally remarkable for the early-
bearing and great productiveness of the trees,
for the large and uniform size of the fruit, which
is moreover exquisite in form and of a pleasing
light lemon yellow color.
Everyone knows that the ordinary quince can-
not be eaten raw with any degree of satisfaction,
nor with any expectation of personal comfort in
the immediate future. Even children, voracious
and unexacting as are their appetites, will scarcely
eat a common quince.
But the Pineapple quince when thoroughly ripe
rivals the apple as a fruit to be eaten raw.
It will also cook as tender as the tenderest cook-
ing apple in four and one-half minutes. No other
quince previously known can be cooked so quickly.
It makes a delicious jelly with a strong, pure pine-
apple flavor. The jelly, indeed, is far superior to
[222]
ON THE QUINCE
that made from any other quince, and in the esti-
mate of many it is superior to that made from any
other fruit.
The Pineapple quince, moreover, is probably
the first variety to be profitably shipped from
California to eastern markets.
In 1910 Mr. H. A. Bassford, one of the largest
growers of California, shipped this variety in ordi-
nary twenty-pound plum crates. The earliest ship-
ments sold at auction for $3.50 per crate. Later
shipments brought $1.50 per crate.
A PracticaL SHIPPING FRUIT
I mention these practical details because the
value of the quince as an orchard fruit for ship-
ment to distant markets has been very little rec-
ognized. Doubtless the forbidding qualities of the
ordinary quince are responsible for this lack of
popularity. But now that the Pineapple quince
has been introduced, there should be an entire
change of popular attitude toward this really ad-
mirable fruit.
I may add that I have even more recently found
among the seedlings one that rivals the Pineapple,
and which has qualities that fully justify its intro-
duction as another new and distinct variety.
This newest of my quinces—called the Burbank
—is somewhat larger than the popular Orange
quince and of much better form. It is as smooth
[223]
LUTHER BURBANK
as an apple, having completely dropped the objec-
tionable habit of producing wool on the skin. The
tree is vigorous; it grows in fine form; and it is an
early and astonishingly prolific bearer.
The fruit has the cooking qualities of the Pine-
apple quince, and is superior for drying and can-
ning, and quite unrivaled except by the Pineapple
for the making of jelly.
TESTING REMOTER COUSINSHIPS
It goes almost without saying that I did not
carry the work with the quince far before I under-
took to introduce new blood from more remote
sources.
All the varieties hitherto named are descend-
ants of European stock, and are of the same spe-
cies. But the quince, like the other orchard fruits,
has Oriental representatives,—races that migrated
eastward from their Central Asiatic home while
the parents of the European quince were migrat-
ing westward. In China and Japan there are
quinces that are listed as belonging to three dif-
ferent species, named Cydonia sinensis C. japon-
ica, and C. maulei. All of these are quite different
from the European quince as to growth, foliage,
and fruit.
As early as 1884 I began making hybridizing
tests with these Oriental quinces.
Particular interest attaches to the experiments
[224]
Chinese Quince
The Chinese quince
somewhat resembles @
cucumber. It has no quali-
ties that commend it to the
Occidental palate, yet it
might prove serviceable as
a hybridizing agent in the
production of new va-
rieties of quince.
LUTHER BURBANK
in which the first-named member of this Oriental
trio was used. This is popularly known as the
Chinese cucumber quince, sometimes called Pyrus
cathayensis, the Cathay pear.
In its general appearance this Chinese tree is
a small, upright grower, quite unlike the ordinary
quince. It is not hardy in the northern United
States. The leaves resemble those of the apple
or pear more than those of the quince. They turn
scarlet in the fall. The flowers for which the tree
is mostly grown vary from pink to crimson, mak-
ing a gorgeous display in the early springtime.
The fruit is variable, but is usually long, green,
very hard, bitter, and uneatable however pre-
pared, but quite fragrant.
In shape as well as in size the fruit suggests a
large, full-grown, white-spine cucumber. It has
usually a smooth, though sometimes netted waxy
skin. A single fruit from it may weigh more than
two pounds.
It will be clear from this description that the
Chinese quince, or Cathay pear, differs very widely
from the European quince. Its fruit is wholly in-
edible, yet there is no reason why this might not
be made over into a profitable and delicious fruit.
It is merely a fruit that has retained the qualities,
undesirable from the human standpoint, of its re-.
mote ancestors. Perhaps it is not much worse to-
[226]
ON THE QUINCE
day than the common quince was in the time of
the Romans.
In hybridizing this peculiar fruit with the com-
mon quince I worked with an open mind, anxious
to see what result the experiment might bring
forth.
The pollen of the common quince was appliea
to the pistils of the Chinese species. Pollenation
was successful; the appearance of the young seed-
lings grown the following season left no doubt of
that. A glance showed that a certain proportion
were hybrids, and even when they first broke the
soil they presented much larger cotyledons of a
different color from those of either parent.
These seedlings were carefully planted in open
ground at Sebastopol with some uncrossed seed-
lings of the Chinese quince in the same row for
comparison, the hybrids, however, being given the
choice of soil and location.
We have previously learned that hybrids usu-
ally grow more vigorously than uncrossed seed-
lings, but the case of these quinces proved a very
notable exception to this rule. At the end of two
years the Chinese quinces of pure stock ranged
from eight to twelve feet high, while the hybrids,
which had been given more room and the best soil,
were dwarfs only six inches high, some of them
even less,
[227]
LUTHER BURBANK
The foliage of these curious miniature trees
was generally a composite, somewhat suggestive
of each parent. But in a few instances plants
showed leaves much shorter and more rounded
than those of either parent, and having the edges
coiled back in a semi-circular form. This peculiar
coiling of the leaves was probably due to the fact
that the mid-rib was inclined to grow more rapidly
than the edges of the leaf.
Unavailing effort was made for two years to
stimulate the growth of these interesting hybrids.
The pure bred Chinese quinces in the same row
came in due course to the time of fruiting, but the
hybrids showed no propensity to flower, and the
tallest were less than a foot in height when their
uncrossed relatives had grown to the height of ten
or twelve feet.
Transplanting to orchard soil and special cul-
tivation appeared to have no effect on the dwarfs.
The experiment was made of grafting some of
them into old quince trees of each of the parents.
Some of the grafts grew and had rambling, spiral-
shaped branches, but they stopped growing when
they had attained a length of two or three feet.
Grafting appeared to give them somewhat en-
hanced powers of growth, but, like the hybrid
seedlings from which the cions were cut, they re-
mained absolutely sterile.
[228]
ON THE QUINCE
No bush or tree of the entire lot put forth a
single blossom.
OTHER Dwarrs RECALLED
It is interesting to recall, in connection with
the curious result of this experiment in hybridiz-
ing the quinces of widely varying species, the re-
sults of my hybridization of the California and
Persian walnuts.
It will be remembered that the hybrids thus
produced were of extraordinary growth, but that
they produced very few nuts, and that among the
seedlings of the second generation there were
many trees of dwarfed growth, suggesting the
quince hybrids.
We found reason to believe that the curious
result of hybridizing the walnuts might be ex-
plained on the supposition that the parent forms
had diverged almost to the point of mutual antag-
onism. They had not varied quite to the point
where their offspring were sterile, but they were
approaching that limit.
The quinces of the experiment now under con-
sideration had diverged one stage farther. They
are still within the limits of affinity that permit
cross-fertilization, but not within those that per-
mit the production of fertile offspring. Their case
is rather to be likened to that of our petunia and
tobacco hybrids, which, as the reader will recol-
[229]
LUTHER BURBANK
lect, were lacking in virility and produced no blos-
soms. The similar case of the motley hybrids
made by crossing various members of the rose
family with their cousin the dewberry will be re-
called. Also the strange progeny of the straw-
berry and the raspberry.
The Chinese-European hybrid quince, then, in
its dwarfed growth and its sterility merely illus-
trates the principle of growth that we have pre-
viously seen manifested with various other plants.
But the extreme dwarfness of the progeny gives
an element of added interest. It would be worth
while, could time be found for it, to make more
extensive hybridizing tests along the same lines.
Possibly some other strains of the two species
than those employed might prove to have slightly
greater affinity. In that case it is conceivable that
a new race of quinces might be produced that
would bear fruit of a new character and give us
an interesting and perhaps valuable addition to
the rather small list of orchard fruits.
In this connection I may refer again to the ex-
periments in which I hybridized the quince and
the apple, and to others in which the quince and
pear were similarly united. The story of these
experiments has been told in earlier chapters, and
no detailed account of them need be given here.
It suffices to repeat that the hybrids in each case
[230]
Van Deman
Quince
This was the first
of Mr. Burbank’s im-
portant quince produc-
tions. It was descended
from an original cross be-
tween the orange cross and
the Portugal quince. It
took the Wilder medal at
the meeting of the Ameri-
can Pomological Society in
Washington in 1891; and
was named after Professor
Van Deman, then head of
the Department of Pomol-
ogy of the U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture. It
is very prolific, hardy, and
is regarded in many parts
of the East as almost the
only quince worth rais-
ing. Its productivity, size,
shape, smooth skin, and
attractive color are in-
herited from the orange
quince; its spicy flavor
and tenderness from
the Portugal.
LUTHER BURBANK
failed to blossom; hence that the experiment, quite
as in the cross with the Chinese quince, came to
no result of practical valuc.
But here, again, it should be borne in mind
that more extensive experiments in hybridizing
these related species might give us a combination
that would be slightly less antagonistic.
It goes without saying that a fertile hybrid be-
tween quince and apple or between quince and
pear would be a fruit of altogether exceptional
interest and of the most inviting possibilities. The
experiment of hybridizing these common fruits
may readily be made by the amateur, and there
are few simple hybridizing experiments that are
more attractive as to their possible results or more
instructive from a scientific standpoint.
TEsTs WITH JAPANESE QUINCES
The two remaining Oriental quinces have al-
ready been named as Cydonia Japonica and C.
mauiei. It should be added that the latter is prob-
ably to be considered as a sub-species. Japanese
quinces do not bear very freely, and their fruit
has a great variety of forms, and is of such ex-
treme acidity as fully to justify Beecher’s cele-
brated formula—which, indeed, is said to have
been suggested by an unfortunate experience with
the Japanese quince.
There is great diversity of bloom among
[232]
Santa Rosa Quince
urbank’s second important new quince,
and was grown as a seedling from Rae’s Mammoth, crossed
with the Portugal quince. It is remarkable for its great size and pro-
ductiveness, for beauty of form, and for the tender flesh and
delicious flavor of its fruit, and the diminutive size of the
core, It was rechristened Child’s Quince by the
introducer to whom it was sold.
This was Mr. B
LUTHER BURBANK
established varieties, the flowers ranging in color
from pure white to bright scarlet and deep crim-
son. Some of them are double. The tree is raised
for ornament only. The bushes are aflame with
leaf buds early in the spring. A little later they
light the landscape with their gorgeous array of
deep crimson, scarlet, pink, and yellowish or white
blossoms. Again, late in the autumn, they are
brilliant with bronzed leaves, and present fruits
of curious and interesting forms.
This, obviously, is a very different tree from
the common quince. It seems so distinct that I
have never attempted to hybridize the two. But
I have crossed the various Japanese quinces among
themselves.
The crossbred seedlings vary widely in foliage,
blossom and fruit. Some of the fruit produced
was as large as ordinary apples, and of varying
shape. Where experiments were made with the
sub-species C. maulei, there was greater promise
than in the case of the other flowering quinces.
This sub-species is a more abundant bearer than
the others, and its fruit is of less objectionable
quality.
The uncrossed specimens of this sub-species are
low, spiny shrubs, not more than two or three feet
high, with short, stiff, spiny branches, which are
often woolly when young. The bushes are multi-
[234]
The Pineapple
Quince on the
Tree
Mr. Burbank’s Pine-
apple Quince, the cul-
minating effort of fifteen
years of selective breed-
ing, combines the good
qualities of the other
quinces with especial prop-
erties of its own. It has
the flavor of the pine-
apple, and has such quali-
ties that it may be eaten
raw like the apple. It will
cook as tender as the ten-
derest cooking apple in
four and one-half min-
utes. The tree is extraor-
dinarily precocious, some-
times bearing fruit when
only four months old. Tiny
trees of the pineapple
quince are sometimes
borne to the ground
with their weight of
relatively colos-
sal fruits.
LUTHER BURBANK
plied readily by division; that is, from rooted
suckers, which spring up from the parent plant.
The flowers, which are usually borne in abun-
dance, are of a bright orange-scarlet. There are
races of the sub-species that have variegated
leaves tinged with delicate pink and white.
This type of flowering quince has much to
recommend it as an ornamental shrub. Moreover,
my hybridizing experiments, as far as they went,
indicated that the C. maulei has valuable latent
possibilities as a fruiting shrub.
From the many thousand seedlings a good
many promising specimens were obtained. Some
of these produced large, handsome, light crimson
blossoms, and extremely large orange-like waxy
golden fruit in the greatest profusion. These
quinces, indeed, are among the handsomest of
all fruits. They always attract attention by their
peculiar form, golden color, and exquisite fra-
grance. The flesh, however, is usually hard and
very acid, though not unlike some varieties of
the common quince.
The extreme hardiness of this species, and its
great productivity make it a very valuable parent
for crossing with other allied varieties. It would
be highly interesting and perhaps important to
experiment in crossing these shrubs with the com-
mon quince. If the cross could be effected, it is
(236)
Pear Seedlings
Grafted on
Quince Stocks
The quince root
system makes an ideal
stock for grafting, and the
= pear thrives admirably on
= this stock. More than a
thousand such grafts are
to be found in the space
shown in this picture.
ry
LUTHER BURBANK
not unlikely that very valuable betterments could
be brought about. It is at least within the possi-
bilities that a quince might be developed that
would be superior in various ways to even the
best of the European varieties. But doubtless a
long series of experiments would be necessary
to attain this goal.
Whatever the precise steps through which the
further development of the quince is brought
about, there can be no question that this fruit has
a very important future. It has been neglected
in the past, and the fact of its tendency to vary
toward the wild type, demonstrates the compara-
tively slight improvement that has been made in
it through artificial selection. But the production
of the new quinces that I have described opens a
broad new field in quince culture. The first steps
in improvement have sufficed to show that the
fruit is responsive.
The quince of to-day is, indeed, a half wild
product that has waited long for its opportunity.
{t remains for the fruit growers of tomorrow,
working with the partially developed product in
hand, to see that the possibilities of this unique
fruit are realized. So hardy, prolific and generally
attractive a tree should make especial appeal to
the amateur orchardist. The fact that the quince
has been neglected, and thus has abundant possi-
[238]
The Medlar—A
Cousin of the
Quince
The Medlar, known
to the botanist as
Mestilus, is a native of cen-
tral Europe. There is a
single species only, but
there are several culti-
vated varieties. The fruit
is too acid for most tastes,
but after being mellowed
by the frost it is relished
by those who care for acid
fruit. It is hardy as far
north as central New York
in the eastern states, and
of course throughout Cali-
fornia. It is worthy of
more attention than it has
received from the Ameri-
can fruit developer. Mr.
Burbank has grown it, and
has made tentative efforts
at its improvement, but
these have not been car-
ried to a conclusion.
LUTHER BURBANK
bilities as yet unrealized gives it additional
attractiveness from the standpoint of the amateur.
In case of apple or pear or peach we have to
do with fruits that have been carefully studied in
thousands of experiments generation after genera-
tion. Even so, we have seen that there are still
good opportunities for further experiment.
But how much larger and, so to say, more acces-
sible are the opportunities in case of a fruit that
has been generally ignored as has the quince. Why
not avail yourself of these opportunities?
—It remains for the fruit
growers of tomorrow working
with the partially developed
product in hand, to see that the
possibilities of this unique
fruit are realized.
THE APRICOT AND
THE LOQUAT
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE EXPERIMENTER
HE only use I have for the apricot,” said a
visitor, “is to supply a flavor for soda
water; but that use justifies the fruit’s
existence. No other flavor can match it.”
Doubtless my visitor spoke facetiously, but we
may all agree with her that there is no other flavor
quite to match the flavor of the apricot. Fortu-
nately, however, there are uses to which the fruit
may be put in addition to the one she suggested.
Otherwise it would not be possible to find a
market for the two hundred million pounds or so
of apricots that California raises each year.
In point of fact the uses of the apricot are
quite as varied as those of most other fruits.
It is an admirable table fruit in the fresh state
for those who live near enough the orchards to
secure it. It is in considerable demand by canners
who find ready sale for the fruit when preserved
[VoLuME IV—-Cnapter VIII]
LUTHER BURBANK
in this way. But the chief demand, and the one
that gives the apricot its real economic importance
is based on the exceptional qualities of the fruit
when dried.
Something like three-quarters of the entire
output of the California orchards is preserved in
this way and shipped as dried fruit to all parts of
the world, and brings about the highest price of
any tree fruit under cultivation.
A perhaps clearer estimate of the value of the
industry may be gained if we recall that there are
nearly three million apricot trees in California
orchards. Indeed, this state has a practical mo-
nopoly of commercial apricot growing.
Nowhere else in the world is the fruit of cor-
responding economic importance.
The apricot has been cultivated from an early
period of history, like the allied orchard fruits,
and it has been grown more or less extensively in
America for many years. But it is a fruit that is
greatly restricted as to the regions in which it can
advantageously be cultivated. The fact that there
are very large areas of California where it thrives,
sufficiently explains the virtual monopoly in the
growth of this fruit that the Pacific Coast enjoys.
Why Apricot Cutture Is DiFFicuLT
The difficulty that the apricot grower en-
counters may be said to center on a single char-
(242)
Siberian Apricots
The Siberian apricot
dries on the tree, or
after falling to the ground,
when it may be preserved
for a long period. This
naturally dried fruit is
sought out by the Nomadic
tribes, for some of whom
it provides an important
element of diet during
the winter season,
7 ee
LUTHER BURBANK
acteristic of the tree—the extreme sensitiveness of
its blossoms to the slightest fall in temperature.
The apricot tree itself under proper conditions
is relatively hardy and extremely productive. It
is long-lived, and it attains great size. Moreover,
it sends out a very extensive root system; demand-
ing plenty of room, and justifying the demand by
its increased production when the trees are not
crowded. It continues to grow for many years,
constantly extending its root system; so that some
orchardists recommend planting the trees origi-
nally twenty feet apart and then, after a number
of years, as the trees increase in size, removing
every other one, thus securing a forty foot space
for the roots of each tree.
In the matter of pests that attack it, the apricot
is relatively favored. It is on the whole a very
healthy and vigorous, as well as very beautiful
tree.
But the sensitiveness of its blossoms to the
slightest chill has hitherto put a restriction upon
the spread of the tree beyond the sub-tropical
zones, except in such a territory as that of Cali-
fornia, where, because of exceptional topograph-
ical conditions, a sub-tropical climate prevails
even at relatively high latitudes. There are ex-
tensive areas of the middle and eastern states, well
toward the north, where the apricot tree may be
[244]
ON THE APRICOT AND THE LOQUAT
grown without difficulty, but where no fruit can
be produced because the blossoms are invariably
blasted by the frosts or near-frosts that are sure
to come after they are put forth.
It is obvious, then, that this fruit presents a
very specific and unusual problem for the plant
developer.
In case of many other fruits, to be sure, it is
desirable to increase hardiness; but with no other
fruit that we have hitherto considered is it so
preeminently desirable to focus on this single ob-
ject. For in the case of no other is there so strik-
ing a disparity between the roots and the blos-
soms as regards the climate to which they are
adapted.
MAKING THE AprIcoT HARDY
The idea that naturally suggests itself to the
plant developer is that of selective breeding, in
which the individuals chosen are those that have
shown themselves relatively able to withstand
cold.
These, of course, can readily be selected in any
region along the outer limits of the apricot’s pres-
ent zone of productivity, by merely noting the
exceptional individuals that produce fruit in the
season when their fellows are rendered infertile
by the frost.
Seedlings grown from these relatively hardy
[245]
—_—_— _~
LUTHER BURBANK
plants would, on the average, tend to manifest
exceptional hardiness; and by successive selection
through many generations it would thus be pos-
sible, without question, to modify the sensitiveness
of the apricot blossom in such a way as to adapt
it for cultivation far beyond the limits of its
present range.
Of course such selective breeding would be
subject to the usual difficulties and complications
that attend the development of any new or ex-
ceptional quality in an orchard fruit.
Here, as elsewhere, there are complications due
to the fact that the fruit will not grow true to type
from seed. In this regard, however, the case of the
apricot is somewhat more favorable than that of
most other orchard fruits, because this species
has been less widely cultivated, and is therefore
less complex as to its hereditary tendencies than
most others.
Moreover, it is fairly easy in the case of the
apricot to predict the qualities of the fruit from
observation of the very young seedlings. In gen-
eral the buds and leaves and wood in the first sea-
son give one a fairly good idea as to what size and
quality of fruit the future tree will bear.
On the other hand, the apricot has a peculiar
habit of sending out a young shoot, and then post-
poning further growth until the buds set and
[246]
Japanese Apricot
The Japanese apricot
bears a small fruit of
very poor acid quality, and
used only for cooking. It
is not an abundant bearer,
and has few qualities that
can commend it. But it
crosses readily with the
cultivated apricot, and Mr.
Burbank suggests the pos-
sibility that in later gen-
erations such a progeny
may develop unex-
pecied qualities,
LUTHER BURBANK
ripen, and this complication may make the choos-
ing of the seedlings a more difficult matter than it
is in the case of apples, pears and peaches. For
when the growth is checked in this manner the
buds may become turgid and the leaves of unusual
size on some plants, suggesting great possibilities,
whereas, in point of fact, these plants may have
no greater intrinsic merit than others that have
continued their growth and so will show at the
moment smaller buds and leaves.
These complications must be very carefully
taken into account in choosing seedlings to save
for the development of improved varieties.
The general rule that large leaves, full buds,
and large short-jointed stems indicate individ-
uals that will bear large fruit of fine quality must
be constantly regarded, but the complications in-
troduced by the anomalous habit of growth just
referred to must not be overlooked.
CaN THE Microscopist HELP?
In carrying out a series of selections with the
idea of developing a race of apricots with blos-
soms resistant to low temperature, there is un-
fortunately little to be expected from crossing
different varieties of this species, because all ex-
isting varieties have been cultivated under more
or less the same climatic conditions.
Indeed, the outlying forms to which one would
[248]
Japanese Apricots
Cut Open
The picture shows
the relatively large size
of the stone, and suggests
the inferior quality of the
flesh of the Japanese apri-
cot. This oriental fruit,
while lacking in the quali-
ties that are prized in
Europe and America, may
prove valuable because of
its hardiness in develop-
ing new races of apricots
through hybridization. It
represents a different spe-
cies from the Euro-
pean apricot.
LUTHER BURBANK
naturally appeal are chiefly natives of Asia Minor,
Palestine, and Persia, and while they might serve
a useful purpose, if hybridized with races now
growing in America, in giving a tendency to varia-
bility and perhaps also an added virility, it is
hardly to be expected that they bear hereditary
factors that would greatly aid in the particular
matter under consideration, because of the warm
climate to which they and their ancestors have
been habituated.
Nevertheless, the experiment is well worth
making for we know that there are latent quali-
ties in the germ plasm of almost every race of
plants that are revealed only through hybridiza-
tion, and the presence of which would otherwise
be quite unsuspected.
In any event there are differences to be ob-
served between individual apricot trees as to the
relative hardiness of their blossoms. So material
is at hand, with or without hybridization, from
which to begin the work of selection.
Doubtless this work might be carried forward
much more rapidly if we had a clearer knowledge
as to what the precise anatomical conditions are
that are associated with extreme sensitiveness of
the blossoms.
We know that some blossoms (those of certain
Japanese plums, for example) may retain their
[250]
Foliage of the
Apricot
The leaves here
shown are from one
of Mr. Burbank’s improved
apricots. With the apricot,
as with other fruit bearers,
Mr. Burbank was able to
make selection in the case
of seedlings by examina-
tion of the foliage and of
the buds. Leaves of a
rich deep color like those
here shown, and fat, well-
rounded buds, indicate
qualities of tree that
will make a good
fruit bearer.
LUTHER BURBANK
fertility even when subjected to freezing tempera-
ture; being able to live even through snow storms,
in contrast to the apricot blossoms which wither
under influence of the lightest frost.
But no elaborate studies have been made to
determine whether this difference is associated
with anatomical differences of structure, the
knowledge of which might guide the plant
developer.
That such differences really exist is suggested
by the observed fact that the leaves of very hardy
varieties of apples, for example those grown in
Siberia, have exceptionally deep layers of epi-
dermal cells to give protection to the less hardy
cells that make up the bu’k of the leaf. Possibly
some similar modification of the cells may ac-
count for the resistant quality of blossoms that
are observed to be able to withstand frost.
THE Microscope May HELP
If such is really the case, the microscopist might
come to the aid of the practical fruit grower,
pointing out to him the particular trees in his
orchard that tend to produce flowers having their
structure thus favorably modified.
This method of selection would have obvious
advantages over the method of planting trees at
random in the colder regions, and waiting the
selective influence of frost.
[252]
Apricot and Seed
This is an improved
variety of apricot, the
result of selective breed-
ing. Further improvement
in the way of decreasing
the size of the stone is de-
sirable, however, and no
doubt this can be brought
about by careful se-
lection, with or with-
out hybridization.
LUTHER BURBANK
If the fruit grower could gain such information
as this in advance, thus planting only the hardier
individuals and subsequently making selection of
the best among these, he might obviously hope to
advance with greater rapidity. And as the task
at best is a tedious one, the plant developer should
welcome any aid that may be offered, from
whatever source.
As yet, however, we have no assurance that
definite assistance can be given us by the micro-
scopists. It may be that the physical conditions
that determine hardiness or sensitiveness in the
flower are dependent on molecular arrangements
that lie far beyond the limits of microscopic
vision.
In that case, we shall be obliged to depend
upon the old method of selection, picking out
plants that have proved somewhat hardier than
their fellows, and being on the alert at all stages
to discover the correlations as to color or form of
stem or leaf that are associated with hardiness of
blossom, that these may aid us in making early
selection among our seedlings.
SEEKING Alp FROM THE PLUM
I have said that the plant experimenter who
attempts to give us a race of apricots with blos-
soms resistant to cold can perhaps expect little aid
from crossing the existing varieties of apricot.
[25.4]
The Seed of the
Apricot
The apricot is, of
course, a near relative
of the almond, and the re-
lationship is suggested by
the stones and seeds here
shown. With the apricot,
however, the stone is a
waste product, and the de-
sirability of decreasing its
size has already been sug-
gested. A stoneless apri-
cot, comparable to Mr. Bur-
bank’s stoneless plum,
will perhaps some day
be developed.
LUTHER BURBANK
Fortunately, however, there are possibilities of
wider hybridizations that give far greater promise.
There are varieties of Japanese plums that will
stand hard freezing every morning from the time
the buds start until the fruit is of good size. With
ordinary plums such freezing absolutely prohibits
the development of fruit, and the apricot, of
course, cannot withstand even a single light frost.
The resistant quality of the Japanese plum,
then, marks it as a plant having in pre-eminent
measure the precise quality that the apricot most
conspicuously lacks.
So the question at once arises as to whether it
may not be possible to hybridize the apricot and
the Japanese plum and by so doing breed into the
apricot strain the quality of hardiness, just as we
have seen specific qualities bred into other plants
by similar hybridization.
Fortunately it is possible to make such a cross.
Reference has already been made to the new fruit
called the Plumcot that I produced a good many
years ago by making use of this particular com-
bination. A full account of the methods involved
and the difficulties overcome in producing this
very unusual hybrid will be given in a subsequent
chapter.
It will then appear that the plumcot is to all
intents and purposes a new species of fruit.
[256]
ON THE APRICOT AND THE LOQUAT
It combines the qualities of the plum and the
apricot, but in itself it is neither plum nor apricot.
So while the plumcot has exceptional qualities
of its own, it does not solve the particular problem
with which we are at the moment concerned. We
are seeking, not a new fruit, but an apricot having
a particular quality that the present apricot lacks.
And the question of the moment is whether
there is a probability that after blending the strains
of the Japanese plum with its hardy blossoms and
the apricot with its peculiar qualities of fruit, it
may be possible in subsequent generations to re-
assemble the qualities in such a way that we would
have an apricot retaining the fruit qualities of its
apricot ancestor, but combining with them the
hardiness of blossom of its plum ancestor.
Were the plum and the apricot a little less dis-
tantly related the question would admit of a ready
answer.
It would then be almost certain that we could,
by a series of selective breedings, produce the de-
sired combination from union of the materials at
hand. But the plum and the apricot, as the quali-
ties of the hybrid plumcot show, lie so far apart
that their progeny tends to reveal a blending of
characters rather than a segregation of unit char-
acters. So it is somewhat less certain than it
otherwise would be that the unit characters of the
[257]
LUTHER BURBANK
two fruits may be segregated and re-assembled in
the way desired.
Nevertheless I am disposed to think that this
result may prove attainable. There are consider-
able variations between the different plumcots.
Some of them tend to vary in the direction of the
apricot, and others in the direction of the plum.
By breeding with reference to a particular set of
qualities—in this case the restoration of the apri-
cot qualities and the retention of the hardy qual-
ity of bloom—it would probably prove possible to
segregate and re-assemble the qualities now
blended in the plumcot in such a way as to give
us a true apricot. Enough has already been done
to convince me that this is possible.
Such being the case I see no reason to doubt
that by careful attention to the question of hardi-
ness of bloom at all stages of the experiment our
redeveloped apricot might be induced to retain
this quality, a heritage from its Japanese plum
ancestor, while retaining also the peculiar quali-
ties of flesh and texture and flavor that are the
hall-marks of the apricot.
We shall have occasion, perhaps, to revert to
this aspect of the subject more in detail in dis-
cussing the plumcot with regard to its various
possibilities of improvement. Here it is enough
to cali attention to the fact that the hybridization
[258]
A Burbank
Improved Apricot
This picture sug-
gests the qualities of
this improved apricot, no-
tably its succulent and
juicy flesh, and the rela-
tively free stone. It is to
be observed, however, that
the stone is still larger
than is to be desired. The
color of the exterior of the
fruit is not important, be-
cause the apricot is almost
altogether used for drying.
With fruits marketed in
the fresh state, the color
is an important item,
many people buying fruit
quite as much for its
appearance as for
its taste.
LUTHER BURBANK
of the apricot with the plum offers at least a pos-
sible solution of the vitally important problem of
the development of a cosmopolitan apricot.
Perhaps there is no single problem of orchard
fruit development that offers possibilities of
greater economic importance.
MatinG WITH ORIENTAL COUSINS
As to other hybridizations, we may add that
there is a quite different species of apricot grow-
ing in Japan, known as Prunus mume, which may
possibly be of value in the development of new
races of apricots, either with reference to the
essential quality of hardiness or to the develop-
ment of other qualities.
This Japanese apricot bears a small fruit of
very poor and acid quality, of use only for cook-
ing. Moreover, it is not an abundant bearer, and
it has few qualities that tend to commend it. It
crosses readily with the cultivated apricot, how-
ever, and although the fruit is very inferior, there
is always a possibility that later generations of
such a progeny may develop unexpected qualities.
Even better results might possibly be attained
by crossing our best apricots with the hardy Rus-
sian apricots, which will bear fruit in much colder
climates, but the fruit of which is but little superior
to that of the Japanese apricot, Prunus mume, just
described.
[260]
ON THE APRICOT AND THE LOQUAT
The Mananites have brought many varieties of
this species to America, and some of them are
classed in the eastern states as good. The best of
them, however, could never be compared in size
or quality with our improved Persian varieties.
There is also a fruit known as the black apricot,
classified by some botanists as Prunus dasycarpa,
which is allied to the apricot and which crosses
readily with it, although it may more properly be
regarded as a plum; being in fact a variety of
Prunus ceresafera, as has been abundantly proved
by numerous seedlings and hybrids produced on
my own grounds.
Hybrids of this fruit with the apricot and with
the Japanese apricot and Japanese plum have been
made in varicus combinations. Here, again, I
shall have occasion to go more into detail in
another chapter. I mention these various hy-
brids here to illustrate further the possibilities of
development of new races of apricots, or of alto-
gether new fruits, through various hybridizations
in which the apricot is one parent.
To mention only one other quality of the pres-
ent apricot that is in great need of improvement,
we may note that the fruit usually grows lopsided
and has a tendency to ripen on one side while
the other is partly green. There is great call among
apricot growers, and especially from canning
[261]
LUTHER BURBANK
establishments, for a large, globular, sweet, free-
stone apricot with a small pit. No apricot now
known fully fills the bill.
There is also opportunity to improve greatly
the drying qualities of the apricot.
All these matters will, of course, receive atten-
tion from the plant experimenter who endeavors
to improve this fruit at the same time that he is
considering the question of hardiness of blossom,
although the latter quality deserves pre-eminent
attention.
FitTING THE ApRIcoT TO NEW CLIMATES
The apricot, both as a canned and as a dried
product, is becoming better known and more
highly appreciated year by year. If a variety
could be produced that would grow in wider terri-
tories, unimpaired by the vicissitudes of tempera-
ture of our north central states, this fruit would
probably become as important as the apple and as
extensively grown. And enough has already been
accomplished to justify us in asserting that the
prospect of extending the culture of this fruit into
territories that are now prohibited is extremely
good.
Already there is a variety of medium size
called the Royal that grows in many regions where
other apricots refuse to produce fruit, and there
are a few other varieties that somewhat approach
[262]
Mr. Burbank’s
Improved Loquats
The loquat is a
fruit that has become
popular only in compara-
tively recent years. In us
unimproved varieties, it is
not very attractive, as the
stone occupies a large part
of the fruit, the pulp being
not only relatively primi-
tive in quantity, but of no
very great degree of succu-
lence. Mr. Burbank has
greatly increased the size
of the fruit, and has also
increased the relative size
of the pulp, although the
Stone still is larger than
might be wished. The
loquat is still in active
training, under Mr. Bur-
bank’s guidance, at
Sebastopol.
LUTHER BURBANK
it. These offer special material for further selec- -
tion, and by combining such selection with skilful
hybridizing the plant experimenter should be able
to produce ap apricot that will stand quite un-
rivaled among the stone fruits.
WHAT THE LoguaT OFFERS
There is another fruit to which reference may
be made here perhaps as well as elsewhere. This
is the loquat, a plant classified by the botanists as
Eriobotyra.
There are several species sometimes classed as
loquats, but the common Japanese loquat is the
only one which the botanist places in the genus
just named. It is a small, broad-leaved, woolly-
branched evergreen, useful not only for orna-
mental purposes, but for its fruit which ripens
from February to June, growing from blossoms
that usually appear in December and January.
The wild loquat of Japan bears a small fruit
about the size of a very large cherry or small
plum, nearly all skin and seeds, and outwardly
somewhat resembling a small apple or large haw-
thorne fruit, except that it is yellowish in color
and rusty woolly.
But there are several improved varieties of
fruit, due to selective cultivation. These oftenest
bear pear-shaped fruit that is sometimes two and
one-half inches in length and two inches in di-
[264]
A Bunch of
Loquats
The loquat is in-
digenous to Japan. The
specimens here shown are
very much enlarged
through selective cultiva-
tion. The better varieties
of loquats may be grafted
advantageously on quince
stock. The plant is not
hardy enough, unfortu-
nately, to be grown
in our northeast-
ern states.
LUTHER BURBANK
ameter. The increased size is due to the pulp,
the seeds not being changed in size.
Indeed there is a tendency in the direction of
smaller seeds, and some of the improved loquats
are almost seedless.
I know of one tree that generally bears fruit
that is altogether seedless. This would be a very
valuabie tree were it not that the parte va-
riety is extremely unproductive.
The fruit is usually of a pale yellow or deeper
golden color, sometimes shaded with crimson on
the sunny side. The flavor suggests that of some
early apples, but is generally considered superior.
The fruit grows in clusters of three to ten or more,
and the improved varieties bear very abundantly.
In some cases two crops may be produced in the
same year.
The tree grows in the Gulf States and along
the Pacific Coast, and it is considerably hardier
than the orange, but not quite as hardy as the fig.
It is quite commonly grown in California and sim-
ilar climates for the decoration of parks and home
grounds, but most varieties grown for this pur-
pose bear little or no fruit. It grows readily from
seed, which germinates at any time of the year.
But it is a very difficult seedling to transplant, so
the seeds should be planted in pots and the entire
contents turned out when the plant is a few inches
[266]
Blossom of the Loquat
Mr. Burbank has found the loquat always perfectly self-
fertile. But it is easy to cross, and no doubt improvement will
come about through crossbreeding with varieties grown in different
regions. In Mr. Burbank’s experience the plant yields rather
readily to efforts for its improvement. It is well worth
the attention of any one living in a region
where it can be grown—notably
the Gulf states.
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yinaf aBsp] $ fijaazjvjar
Bu1spaq aasj ajOuls Dv wots
Papuarsap aip saat} $,yUuvg
-ing “4 11y ‘“Sujpaastq
aandajas fiq au} jsoys
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ay} uz paonpoid uaaq sDy
yoy} Juawmaaoidul} ay} sjsab
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pup u}xs 11D Ajaipau ‘umnjd
yous 40 Assayo ab10}
fiaaza Dv fo az}s ayy ynogv
yim4f 2]DuIs D sipaq ‘$})2}4
-pa pajvajyjyyna ays 110 Jo
4ojtuaBoad ayy ‘undvs
fo yonbo] prim aul
spaag pup jonbo’y
Typical Loquats
Although the loquat
produces this relative-
ly enormous seed, there is
a great variation in differ-
ent specimens; and Mr.
Burbank reports that he
knows of one tree that
generally bears fruit that
is altogether seedless. Un-
fortunately this tree is ex-
tremely unproductive, but
the fact that it exists is
encouraging as suggesting
that it will be possible to
produce a race of seedless
loquats of good quality,
through crossbreed-
ing and careful
selection.
Se
ef
LUTHER BURBANK
high, after the method used with geraniums and
various other garden plants.
The better varieties of loquat can be grafted
during January and February.
Grafting may be done by the “cleft” method
or any other of the usual methods already de-
scribed. It is well to remove most of the leaves
from the cion, leaving a cluster of the tip bud
leaves. Wax should be applied freely, and a
paper sack tied tightly over the graft and stock
to protect it from drying winds. Later the sack
may be partially opened, and at last removed.
The large number of seedling loquats in my
orchard were grown from one tree, bearing giant
fruit, imported from Japan. The seedlings vary
decidedly in growth and in foliage. As these come
into bearing they may be expected to produce new
varieties of loquats, some of which will combine
size, quality, rapid growth, and productiveness.
My first seedlings fruited at about the age of three
years from seed, some not until the fourth year.
The better varieties of the loquat are quite
often grafted or budded on common quince stock,
on which the trees thrive as well apparently, as if
on their own roots. This would indicate the pos-
sibility (but not necessarily the probability) of
crossing the loquat and the quince.
So far as my experience indicates, the loquat
[270]
ON THE APRICOT AND THE LOQUAT
is perfectly self-fertile. It is readily crossed and
yields rather promptly to efforts at its improve-
ment. There is every probability that it will be-
come a much more important fruit in the near
future. And among our minor orchard fruits
there are few, if any, that offer better opportuni-
ties for the amateur plant experimenter.
—There is no single problem
of orchard fruit development
that offers possibilities of
greater importance than the
development of a cosmopolitan
apricot.
Fruit of the Guava
The Guava is a sub-tropical fruit that has only recently
been given attention in California, and in our southern states.
It is chiefly known in temperate climates as the producer of a very
admirable jelly of unusual piquancy and unique quality. Very little
has been done hitherto in the way of improving the fruit, but
now that it is claiming the attention of the plant devel-
oper, it will doubtless be greatly modified. Unfor-
tunately it is too tender to be grown anywhere
in the United States except along the
Pacific Coast and about the Gulf.
CITRUS FRUITS—AND FRUITS
FROM THE TROPICS
New EXPERIMENTS WELL WorTH TRYING
my experimental gardens in Southern Cali-
fornia.
My answer is that I chose the location some-
what by accident, but that I soon found reasons
for not changing it.
The chief of these is that I desired to produce
fruits, flowers, and vegetables adapted for growth
in the widest possible territories, and it was there-
fore desirable that I should be located in a region
-where the plants could have the test of relatively
cold winters during the time of their development.
Moreover nearly all our orchard fruits thrive and
come to perfection in this part of the state better
than almost anywhere in the southern part.
But, on the other hand, the location has not
been altogether without its drawbacks; for where-
as I am able to experiment to better advantage
| AM sometimes asked why I did not establish
[VoLume IV—Cuapter IX]
LUTHER BURBANK
with the hardy plants, I am somewhat handi-
capped in the attempt to deal with the more
tender ones.
This is notably true of the orange and its allies
of the citrus family.
These fruits very naturally interested me from
the outset, not only because of their economic im-
portance, but because the five familiar species of
the family, namely the orange, lemon, lime, shad-
dock, and citron present inviting diversities of
form and habit, and yet are so closely allied that
they cross very readily, and thus give the plant
experimenter precisely the opening that he is
always seeking.
It is probable that all these citrus fruits sprang
from one original species growing somewhere in
the region of northern India.
But although the habitat of these plants has
always been restricted to sub-tropical climates,
yet they have become so diversified as to form
fairly good species, and the different traits of the
various members of the clan are fairly fixed. Not,
indeed, that any of them may be raised advantage-
ously from seed, for here they show the same
diversity that is shown by the other orchard fruits.
But all varieties of oranges, for example, differ
quite radically from any variety of lemons, and
the seeds of the orange will not produce the
[274]
ON TROPICAL FRUITS
lemon, or vice versa, however widely the progeny
may differ from the parent form within the limits
of specific variation.
ATTEMPTS TO Propuce A Harpy ORANGE
My attempts to cultivate the citrus fruits date
back about a quarter of a century.
I pursued the investigation actively for a time,
securing everything that was to be had, including
the small Japanese variety called the Kumquat,
Kimkan, or Kinkit, Citrus Japonica. This is a
small, lime-like fruit produced in amazing abun-
dance, having acid flesh but a skin with sweet,
pleasant, orange flavor.
Wild oranges were sent me also from Central
Africa, Australia, and South America, and the best
cultivated varieties from Burmah, Ceylon, and
various less distant regions.
The object primarily in view was the produc-
tion of a hardy orange; one that would grow in
northern California, and in regions of the eastern
United States well to the north of the present
limits of growth of this tender fruit.
My experiments were promising at the outset,
and I soon had a variety of hybrid seedlings.
But there came a series of cold winters that
destroyed the entire citrus orchard, and after one
or two other tentative efforts, I was compelled to
admit that my farms are located in a region un-
[275]
LUTHER BURBANK
suited for development of the citrus fruits. The
initial investigations through which the hardy
orange is developed must be made in a more.
favorable locality.
I frequently mentioned my belief that a hardy
orange could be developed, however, and it is
satisfactory to record that experiments along this
line have more recently been undertaken under
the patronage of the United States Government.
The variety known as Citrus trifoliata, a wild
form which had never been much cultivated, was
known to be exceptionally hardy. This was hy-
bridized with the sweet orange in the Government
experiments just referred to, and the early results
are thought to be very promising.
“Among the seedlings observed,” says Profes-
sor E. M. East, “several have proven valuable.
They form a new class of citrus fruits and have
been called Citranges. Three of these varieties
have been named the Rusk, the Willits, and the
Morton. The Rusk, which is a hybrid of orange
crossed by ftrifoliata, is a small fruit with a bitter
tang like the pomelo. It makes excellent marma-
lade and preserves. The Willits, coming from a
cross of orange upon trifoliata, is a rough, but thin-
skinned fruit, resembling an orange in appearance
but a lemon in flavor. It is used as a condiment
or for citrangeade. The Morton, coming from the
[276]
A Branch of Pomegranates
This branch bears buds, blossoms, and fruit at the same
time. The pomegranate is a native of southern Asia, where it
is grown both for ornament and for its edible fruit. There are several
varieties under cultivation in the Orient, but it has only recently
claimed attention in America, and of course can be grown
only in the warmer parts. It thrives well
in California.
LUTHER BURBANK
same kind of cross as the Willits, is a large, juicy,
almost seedless fruit, only slightly more bitter than
the sweet orange.
“Young trees of these three varieties have en-
dured a temperature of eight degrees above zero,
and it is thought that by the use of these, and of
similarly obtained varieties, citrus fruit culture
can be extended fully 400 miles north of the
present region.”
Doubtless the orange will always remain a rela-
tively tender fruit, for it is an evergreen that has
never wandered far from the Tropics. But it is
equally little to be doubted that it could be made
much hardier than any existing race of citrus
fruits, and the incentive for the production of such
a hardy race is so great that there should be no
dearth of experimenters in the field.
The orange crop is occasionally blasted even in
Florida by an unusual frost. In 1895, for example,
the loss of the trees themselves was so great as to
put a serious handicap on the industry for a term
of years. So it is imperative that a race of oranges
should be developed that will be capable of endur-
ing occasional periods of cold. But, aside from
the tentative experiments just noted, very little has
hitherto been accomplished in this direction.
The field is open for any experimenter who is
located in a region that lies well within the present
[278]
ON TROPICAL FRUITS
orange belt (preferably near its northern limits)
and the reward that awaits the successful devel-
oper of a hardy orange is sure and significant.
SEEDLESS CiTrUS FRuITS
Everyone is familiar nowadays with the so-
called Navel Orange, which combines the very
notable quality of seedlessness with large size and
general excellence of quality.
The seedless condition of this orange is not the
result of skillful selection, but appeared as a
“sport” in certain wild oranges of Brazil. There
are almost numberless varieties of oranges grow-
ing wild in the region of the Amazon. A lady who
was traveling through South America, was sur-
prised to find among the oranges served at the
hotel where she was stopping some that were seed-
less—a thing hitherto never conceived even as a
possibility among cultivators of the fruit.
The discovery was communicated to the Agri-
cultural Department at Washington, and in 1870
the new variety was imported.
Four years later specimens of the tree were
sent from Washington to California and the fruit,
which was subsequently christened the Washing-
ton Navel in recognition of its origin and its pecu-
liar form, soon came to be extensively cultivated.
This varicty is subject to bud variation and a num-
ber of more or less distinct varieties have made
[279]
LUTHER BURBANK
their appearance. But there is still opportunity
for improvement through further selection.
CULTIVATION OF THE ORANGE
The orange is budded or grafted on roots of
its own species or on those of the lemon or the
shaddock, better known as the grapefruit.
The process of budding is altogether similar to
the budding of other trees and it presents no diffi-
culties. Stocks may be grown from seed but, as
already noted, seedlings cannot be depended upon
to reproduce the parent forms, and all the best
varieties of orange are propagated by grafting.
The chief peculiarity of orange culture is that
it is necessary to grow the fruit on irrigated soil.
Water is, of course, essential to all plant life,
but a tree like the orange, with heavy evergreen
foliage, makes exceptional demands, and it is
imperative, if the large juicy fruit is to be brought
to perfection, that these demands shall be ade-
quately met.
It was the recognition of this fact by the old
Moors more than a thousand years ago that made
Valencia in Spain, thanks to the Moorish system of
irrigation, the heart and center of the orange in-
dustry of the world. The irrigation system estab-
iished by the Moors is still in successful operation,
and Valencia remains the largest single shipping
port for oranges anywhere in the world.
[280]
Group of
Pomegranate
Fruits
The picture shows
the characteristic shades
and color of the pome-
granate, and suggests the
wide variation in size of
the different fruits. It is
said that there are several
varieties grown in Bengal,
one being seedless, and an-
other growing, it is alleged,
to the size of the ordinary
human head. This report
may be taken with a cer-
tain allowance, but it sug-
gests possibilities of de-
velopment of the fruit
through selective breeding
that have as yet not been
realized in this country.
The fruit is worthy of
more attention than has
hitherto been given it
by horticulturists.
LUTHER BURBANK
It is only in very recent years that California
fruit has challenged the product of the Spanish
orchards.
The absorption of water by the roots of the
tree, and its elevation through the trunk to supply
the deficit made by constant transpiration from
the pores of the leaves is a phenomenon that has
been perfectly familiar to botanists for a long
time. It was demonstrated experimentally by
Stephen Hales early in the 18th century. But the
forces that lie back of the phenomenon have been
very little understood.
Very recently one of the most celebrated
American botanists has declared that the cause of
the rise of sap in trees remains perhaps the most
interesting of botanical puzzles.
It is, in effect, as some one has pointed out, a
case of water running up hill, and many botanists
have found it mystifying that the plant tissues are
able to withstand the pressure that a column of
water must exert, particularly in the case of tall
trees.
THE RIseE OF SaP IN THE TREE
In point of fact, however, it should be recalled
that the sap in the tree is not carried in open tubes
comparable to the arteries of the animal system.
If it were in such tubes, doubtless no plant
tissues could withstand the pressure that would be
[282]
Group of Japanese Persimmons
notably cultivated in Japan,
where the secret was learned that the fruit loses its astrin-
gency when packed closely in air-tight receptacles. It appears that
carbonic acid in the absence of oxygen produces in the fruit pre-
cisely the chemical changes necessary to transform it from
an astringent and inedible toa highly palatable fruit.
The persimmon has been
LUTHER BURBANK
exerted by the weight of the column of water, car-
ried, let us say, to the top of a redwood tree. For
that matter, a column of water in even a relatively
small tree like the orange would probably exert
a deleterious pressure on the cellular structures.
But in reality the water in the plant is contained
largely in the cells of the plant tissue, and is passed
on by osmosis or exudation from one cell to
another.
It seems probable that the laws of osmosis as
developed by the Dutch physicist Vant Hoff,
partly in response to questions raised by Professor
deVries, give a clew to the entire subject of the rise
of sap in the tree.
According to Vant Hoff’s theory, osmosis or the
passage of water through a membrane from a
weaker to a stronger solution, is due to the pres-
sure of the molecules in the stronger solution
which, in virtue of their greater numbers, beat
against the cell wall and exert a pressure exactly
comparable to the pressure of a gas. The push of
the molecules against the cell wall suffices to
squeeze water through the wall until there is an
equalization of pressure on both sides.
As the protoplasm in the cells of the rootlets of
a plant is more concentrated than the watery so-
lutions in the soil about it, osmotic action is
established, which results in the cells taking up a
[284]
Persimmon Tree in Bearing
This shows an improved variety of persimmon in full
bearing. Mr. Burbank suggests that great improvement may be
wrought by combining the Japanese and the American varieties. At
first the Japanese is incomparably superior, the American per-
simmon being very litile prized in the regions where it
grows. Through combination and selective breedinga
really notable orchard fruit should be developed.
LUTHER BURBANK
certain amount of water. But cells that thus take
in water at once give up a portion of it to their
neighbor cells, and these in succession pass it on
to their neighbors. Thus, through an endless
series of reactions between the cells the water is
carried up in the living wood next to the bark of
the tree and ultimately to the leaves.
NATuURE’S BUCKET BRIGADE
The process is not altogether unlike the activi-
ties of a fire brigade in the rural districts, where
a line of men is formed from the fire to the near-
est well, and buckets are passed from hand to
hand.
If the fire is in the upper story of a building,
men on the ladder may similarly hoist one bucket
after another from hand to hand. And in this
case it is obvious that there is no question of a
column of water to exert pressure. The water is
transported in individual buckets each one inde-
pendent of the others.
And it would appear that the case of the water
in the plant cells is closely comparable. Each
pair of cells constitutes a system more or less in-
dependent of all the others.
The forces of osmosis, operating between each
pair of cells, are in command of the situation and
so break the continuity that all semblance to a
continuous column of water is lost.
[286]
ON TROPICAL FRUITS
The full power of the molecular forces that,
acting jointly, carry the water to the tree tops
will best be understood when it is recalled that if
a rubber tube is put tightly about the end of an
amputated twig, water in this tube will be forced
upward by the pressure of water in the cells of
the twig. This experiment, first made by Hales
in 1727, in itself shows how utterly different are
the conditions of water in the tree from the mere
mechanical condition of pressure that governs the
water in a closed tube, or otherwise standing in a
single receptacle.
Titanic MoLecuLar Forces
Many boys have made the experiment of burst-
ing a barrel by the pressure of water in a small
iron pipe projecting upward from the barrel.
Whoever has seen the experiment will not
doubt that the physical laws governing the water
in the trunk of the tree are quite different from
those that govern the water in the iron tube. And
the difference is due, the physicists assure us, to
the interposition of the molecular forces.
Whether or not the laws of osmosis, above out-
lined, as discovered by Vant Hoff, give full expla-
nation is matter for the physicists to decide. As
yet they are not quite sure about it. But that the
osmotic forces are at least partly instrumental in
lifting the water, all are agreed.
[287]
—
LUTHER BURBANK
Meantime, referring specifically to the orange,
it requires no great powers of observation to dis-
cover why this tree stands in such pre-eminent
need of an exceptional water supply.
It is only necessary to recall that the bulk of
the fruit is juice, each orange containing four or
five ounces of water, to discover what the tree does
with the liquid it imbibes so freely. A well-laden
orange tree, with say a thousand mature fruits, is
carrying the equivalent of thirty or forty gallons
of water in its globular buckets; and of course
there is constant transpiration of moisture from
the leaves which in the aggregate is far greater.
HYBRIDIZING POSSIBILITIES
And all of this, of course, applies not merely
to the orange but to the allied citrus fruits, in
particular to the grapefruit and the lemon.
Indeed, the entire company of citrus fruits is
characterized by exceeding juiciness of pulp, the
bulk of the fruit being made up of water—with
delicious acids and sweets instilled therein—
merely intermeshed with enough thin fibrous tis-
sues to give stability to the fruit structure.
These fruits are further characterized by the
unique quality of the fruit-covering, which is
painted with marvelous hues that are so unique
as to have given their names to prominent pig-
ments of the painter’s color box; and incorporate
[288]
Sweet Lemon
To speak of a sweet
lemon seems a contra-
diction of terms. Never-
theless there are varieties
of lemon that are dis-
tinctly sweet. The one
here shown has the pe-
culiarity that the skin
peels off readily, like that
of an orange. The tree on
which it grew will be
utilized for further ex-
periments in select-
ive breeding.
LUTHER BURBANK
curious series of minute oil wells laden with es-
sential essences of no less individual quality.
These traits, among others, mark the citrus
fruits as constituting a highly specialized and iso-
lated group of plants.
It is not to be expected that any one of them
could be hybridized with a member of any other
family. But, on the other hand, within the bounds
of the citrus family there is full opportunity, as I
have already pointed out, for cross-fertilization.
I am confident that many interesting develop-
ments would have resulted from the hybridization
of oranges and lemons and limes and citrons in
my orchard had not the frost treated the tender-
lings so harshly. Not unlikely there would have
been developed new citrus fruits differing from
any existing one as markedly as the plumcot dif-
fers from apricot and plum. This, of course, is
only matter of conjecture for the experiments were
cut short, as already told, before they passed be-
yond the early stages.
Still the fact that I was able to effect hybridiza-
tion between the various citrus fruits is highly
suggestive and should prove stimulative to other
workers.
Here is a field as yet scarcely entered and one
that offers almost unbounded possibilities. The
orange industry is the great fruit industry of Cali-
[2901
Tree of Ponderosa Lemons
This tiny tree bears lemons of a size seldom seen in the
eastern markets. It is customary in the lemon-growing regions
to pass the fruit through a ring of a certain size, to get standard size,
only those that will pass through the ring being shipped. The
big lemons are much better than the small ones, but as
lemons are sold by the dozen in the eastern markets,
it does not pay to ship those of exceptional size.
LUTHER BURBANK
fornia today, as it is of the Gulf States. In both
of these regions experimenters should take up the
work. It is at least possible that new and strange
citrus fruits may thus be brought into being.
As a single hint suggestive of possibilities, let
me recall that the very earliest plum in existence
today is probably the one that I developed by
successive hybridizations which ultimately intro-
duced and blended the strains of six of the latest
plums.
Possibly, then, the problem of developing an
orange resistant to cold—one that may be grown
not merely along the Gulf but along the Great
Lakes as well—may be solved in similar fashion.
It seems paradoxical to suggest that the blending
of oranges from half a dozen tropical and sub-
tropical climates—India, Arabia, Northern Africa,
Brazil, Florida, Southern California—might pro-
duce a fruit adapied to the climate of, let us say,
Missouri or Ohio; yet the case of my early plum,
descended from late ancestors, suggests that this
idea is not altogether chimerical. This work will
be greatly simplified by the fact that we now have
an orange, before mentioned, which, without
special selection for this purpose, is now hardy as
far north as Philadelphia.
OTHER Sup-TropicaL FRvuITS
And a similar suggestion may be made regard-
[292]
California Orange
Grove
The picture shows
a typical orange grove,
such as may be seen either
in southern or in north-
ern California. Curiously
enough the fruit comes to
maturity in the northern
pari of the state, or at
least in certain regions of
the northern part, earlier
than in southern Califor-
nia. The anomaly is ex-
plained as due to ocean
currents, which modify the
temperature with curious
and unexpected results. In
a recent year when oranges
were destroyed by frost
in the southern part of
California, those in the
northern part of the state
escaped because they had
already been picked
for the market,
LUTHER BURBANK
ing a considerable company of other fruits that
have come to us from tropical and sub-tropical
regions.
The olive, the fig, the persimmon, the guava,
the alligator pear, the banana, the pomegranate,
the pineapple—these are but a few of the more
familiar members of a varied company of fruits,
not in themselves related except that they all had
their original home in the Tropics and for the
most part have proved indisposed to migrate ex-
tensively into temperate zones.
One or two of these, to be sure, have shown a
tendency to follow the example set by the plum,
the pear, and the apple, and try their fortunes in
regions lacking the perpetual summer of their
original habitat.
Most notable among these, perhaps, is the per-
simmon, which made its way to Japan on one con-
tinent, and to the south central regions of the
United States on the other.
This fruit has been cultivated to best advantage
in Japan, where the secret was first discovered
that its astringency is lost when the fruit is packed
closely in air tight receptacles. In this country it
was discovered by Mr. Geo. C. Roeding of Fresno
that the secret of the Japanese persimmon is no
more mystifying than this: It is merely necessary
to pack the fruit in tubs from which Saki or
[294]
Cross Between Orange and Lemon
This very curious hybrid is likened to the crossbreed
apple shown in the frontispiece of the present volume. It would
appear that part of the stigmas of the flower were fertilized by pollen
of the orange, the others by pollen of the lemon. That the fruit
itself should take on a mongrel type, as here shown, is
anomalous but not without precedent, as the case
of the hybrid apple shows. Mr. Burbank’s
interesting experiments in hybridizing
the lemon and the orange were
interrupted by the loss of
his trees through frost.
LUTHER BURBANK
Japanese “rice beer” has been recently removed.
It appears that carbonic acid in the absence of
oxygen produces in the fruit precisely the chem-
ical changes necessary to transform it from an
astringent and inedible fruit to a highly palatable
one.
I have raised vast numbers of seedlings of the
Japanese persimmon and have attempted to pro-
duce new varieties by crossing this with the Amer-
ican persimmon; but as yet I have not succeeded
in effecting this hybridization—chiefly, perhaps,
because the American species is such a shy bearer
that I have had few good opportunities to cross-
fertilize the two.
Now that the good qualities of the persimmon
are beginning to be more generally recognized,
further experiments in this direction will probably
be carried out, and there is every reason to ex-
pect, arguing from analogy, that new and greatly
improved races of persimmons may thus be
developed.
Whoever will contrast the hybrid Japanese-
American plum of today as developed in my
orchards at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol with the
best plums of thirty years ago will see at least a
suggestion of new possibilities in the prospective
union of the Japanese and American persimmon.
For the best existing varieties of persimmon—the
[296]
ON TROPICAL FRUITS
Japanese races are incomparably superior to the
American—have such qualities as furnish a se-
cure foundation on which to develop a really
notable orchard fruit.
Fig AND MULBERRY
Another experiment that I have tried, as yet
unsuccessfully, with sub-tropical fruits, is the
hybridization of the fig and the mulberry.
The fig, as is well known, grows abundantly in
California. Nearly every one has learned that for
many years after it was introduced, the fig was a
very poor bearer, blossoming abundantly but fail-
ing to ripen satisfactory fruit. The trouble, as was
presently discovered, was that the peculiar minute
species of wasp which is the sole bearer of pollen
from the male or so-called Capri fig to the pistillate
flowers, was not found in California. So soon as
this insect was imported from Italy, figs of good
quality were borne in abundance by hitherto
barren trees.
The fig has been under cultivation perhaps as
long as any other fruit, and it is exceedingly vari-
able when grown from seed.
I have grown seedlings in abundance, but 99
out of 100 produce worthless fruit.
You plant seeds of the white fig and you are
quite as likely to get black or brown figs as white
ones.
[297]
LUTHER BURBANK
This is probably because the Capri fig has
never been cultivated for color; in fact very little
attention has been given to it, even for the —
development of vigor and productivity.
About the only attention paid it by the fruit
grower has had reference to the early or late time
of blooming. This is important merely because it
is necessary that staminate and pistillate plants
should bloom at the same time, else the fig wasp
obviously cannot perform its pollenizing service.
A pound of European figs, grown from flowers
fertilized by the Capri insect (otherwise the seeds
would be infertile) will produce perhaps ten thou-
sand seedlings. But it requires patience to wait
fifteen or twenty years to test the fruit, and it
cannot be fairly tested in less time.
It is difficult to hasten the process by grafting
because the fig cion does not take kindly to being
transplanted.
Doubtless a satisfactory method of grafting
might be developed, however, were sufficient at-
tention given to the subject. Perhaps nothing more
would be necessary than to protect the cion care-
fully against drying, by covering it with a paper
bag until union has taken place, as is done in
grafting the orange and various other fruits, and
the walnut.
As just stated, the attempts to hybridize the fig
[298]
Blossom of the Feijoa
The Feijoa or fig guava is indigenous to Brazil, whence it
has recently been introduced into warm temperate regions of
the northern hemisphere. Mr. Burbank now has the plant under
tutorage at Santa Rosa, and it is expected that marked
improvement in the fruit will be shown in
the course of a few generations.
LUTHER BURBANK
with its relative, the mulberry, did not prove
successful.
But this was probably because I did not give
enough time and patient attention to the effort.
The two fruits are botanically related and I some-
times think of the fig as a mulberry turned outside
in.
It should be possible to effect hybridization
between the two species, and perhaps greatly to
improve one or both of them; possibly even to
develop a wholly new fruit through this union—
like the plumcot.
Movine TropicaL Fruirs NORTHWARD
We need not enter into further details in
connection with the subject of tropical fruits be-
cause I am chiefly concerned in this narrative to
tell what I have accomplished in the way of plant
development rather than to dwell on unrealized
possibilities. But I cannot refrain from urging
upon others who are geographically so located as
to bring the tender fruits within the range of their
experiments, the desirability of undertaking ex-
tensive series of investigations in this practically
untrodden field.
It should be recalled that all of our fruits, even
the hardiest ones that now penetrate to the Arctic
Zone, must have come originally from the Tropics.
The fact that the plum and pear and apple
[300]
STU PEESRERELIRUON ALI TPP
Grove of Feijoa
Trees
This grove of the
young fig guavas is at
the back of Mr. Burbank’s
garden at Santa Rosa. The
entire grove here shown
has been developed froma
single slip received by Mr.
Burbank from King Im-
manuel. By careful culti-
vation and multiplication
this grove has been de-
veloped from the single
slip within three’ years
from the time of
its receipt.
LUTHER BURBANK
have become hardy enough to resist winters of
almost Arctic severity is in itself an all-sufficient
evidence of the adaptability of the fruit bearers,
and should be an inspiring object lesson to the
experimenter with fruits that still retain the trop-
ical and sub-tropical habit.
It requires no very great powers of prophetic
vision to forecast a day when a large number of
fruits that now are known only in sub-tropical
zones will have made their way, under guidance
of the plant developer, across many degrees of
latitude that at present seem like impassable
barriers.
The Feijoa (pronounced fay-zho-a) or fig guava
(Feijoa Sellowiana) from Brazil, a vigorous fruit-
ing shrub; the Cherimoya (Anona cherimolia)
from the Central American highlands, which has
been classed with the pineapple and the mango-
steen as making up the trio of the world’s finest
fruits; the Australian Macadamia (Macadamia
ternifolia), prized for both fruit and nut; the
Natal Plum (Carissa grandiflora) from South
Africa, with its fragrant flowers and scarlet fruit;
and the White Sapote (Casimirva edulis) from
Mexico with quince-like fruit of unique flavor—
these are among the tropical and sub-tropical
products that have come to us within recent years
and that promise to make secure place for them-
[302]
Plant of the Alligator Pear
Mr. Burbank is now experimenting actively with the de-
velopment of the alligator pear. The specimen here shown is
a seedling which has withstood the rigors of one of the coldest Cali-
fornia winters, suggesting that the plant may become hardy
as far north as Santa Rosa. There is promise of
marked improvement in this interesting fruit,
LUTHER BURBANK
selves among well-prized fruits of orchard and
market. And there are others yet to come.
Meantime I should not like to predict as to
which among the fruits that now are confined
solely to the region of the Gulf of Mexico and to
Southern California as their northern limits, may
not within a century be growing and bearing
luxuriantly in the region of the Great Lakes.
[END oF VoLuME IV]
—It should be recalled that
all of our fruits, even the
hardiest ones that now pene-
trate to the Arctic zone, must
have come originally from the
tropics.
LIST OF
DIRECT COLOR PHOTOGRAPH PRINTS
IN VOLUME IV
Alligator Pears
Page
Plant of the Alligator Pear..........cceseecesesesvecs eee 308
Apple
Half Sweet, Half Sour Apple........ceeccceeccees Frontispiece
MMIPCELEDT ADDIE. 6 occ cc ccc ccctnansacrcccdvccgssavvoapiness 13
BIAMONHT GADDILC hs « s cnice vo s.co rien 00 viene sent nwjeieleiy.os\eis.n'.0 34
A Beautiful Seedling Apple...........c.cecevccvscnsceccece 176
Mr. Burbank’s South Apple.........ccescecscvccesccsesece 181
MUInferntein ADpPle ...6.2.cceccsccsccccccsnecnessecenseven 183
Burbank Seedling Apples..........scseeccececececsccesees 185
The Roman Beauty Apple..........cccececcccccscecsscvens 187
Seedling Apples.........-cccsccccccccscsccccccccccccscses 189
More Seedling Apples.......-.ceeeeececcccescecseceeceees 193
MERPIORS TICAUILIES < coc nc ove cece wccsecvisics ens evelceseeneins.s 197
Two Fine Specimens............ccececsescccscccceseccecs 199
More Nondescripts........ccccccccccccccccescccccscccevces 201
Large and Toothsome..........seseeceeeeeee er eseeeeceees 203
Gold Ridge Apple...........cceeececccccccrsnecsereseccees 205
Extremes of Development..........-ceeceeececereereceees 207
Getting on in the World..........sceeeeeeereeeenereneenens 209
Apricots
POO UGATTICOL cs oo bc cs oriees cco vice vicvscesieicievauieine dels av seis 28
Dried Apricots...........ccecccreccnccccccccereeesssscece 29
Siberian APpricotS..........2ce cee cecceccereceeeeseenseees 243
Japanese APpricot....... 2. eee cece cece reece ee teneeerecenees 247
Japanese Apricots Cut Open......eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecneee 249
Foliage of the Apricot..........ceeceeee rece eee ceeeeeeeere 251
Apricot and Seed......-..ceececceecccceerecesesesesceees 253
The Seed of the Apricot.........cccecereccccveseecesecers 255
A Burbank Improved Apricot......-.eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeecs 259
Cherries
Mr, Burbank’s 400... cccccccusecccctcceseasesovessccccess 68
Some of the 400 Come to Judgment..........seeeeeeeeeeee vA!
South American CherrieS........ceeeeeeeeecererceeeeecenee 73
The Catalina CHEVY... ..6cccccccccccccrrtcsecievccsevacses 75
Some Curious Short-Stemmed Hybrids..........+-+++e+05 7
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Continued)
Page
Botan and Black Giants, Side by Side.............. eaeene >». on
Mr. Burbank’s Abundance Cherry....... Se itetd eisiaié sie \s. eevee 85
Branch of 1909 Cherries.......-.cesccccvccccesscccsceces 87
Other Nameless SeedlingS.......ccccccccccccscccccccssses 89
Some That Have Proved Worthy.......--.ccscccccsvcvece o) ae
A Box of Burbank. Cherries... 2... 0c.sccccoscucscns «bic o\a eee
A Large, Late-Bearing Red Seedling........... POO Ci
Feijoa
Blossom of the Feijoa...... AGA CUOODUCUOC PPRIICICOnnGGOsoG Lo
Grove of Feijoa Trees...... a iaiDia\etatealelateretate APOC.
Guava
Fruit of the Guava...... aiele aAeeroeloisteys siecteie 0e\s\e eis cielo shale etaaieaaanas
Lemons
Sweets Lemoine. ictciecislesiclsicveleisiersincielals)aielalalatets o'e'e 6 eit a 'a/elatote aieenan
Tree of Ponderosa Lemons...........cs.sace aleve oie ecavain wietraneeeae
Cross Between Orange and Lemon..... <:6,0.0, 610 wine sl oletaialataiatare nee
Loquats
Mr. Burbank’s Improved Loquats.......cececcescscscsscee 200
A Bunch) Of TZOdquatss:: <\<ic's s/c. s\slcioleesleieosi= rentals sets cesta iat os aes
Blossom of; Woquater. os ele c\s\c/<lo!s)olereleletataisierele olate via/atete tolalelelone epee Came
Haquateand., SCEdS cic «)s\e\a)e1e siojeleisfol=lelelotel-t= ein, o'e wistale eVoretaelehela mata amenaen
Typical TLOquatss coco. cece cee cicieciciesclniniusisiclsis + 16:0'0’eretalaleetetetmeetaes
Medlar
The Medlar—A Cousin of the Quince......sccccsccscccseces Bao
Nectarines
The “Nectarine... cq ower eisin rowel soeaeale Sole voles eielele oeieheai Sanee
Big String Nectarines.<.cic\cisiciclel aielcisasietvte ae sla avalelelelele tate atone
Bully, N@ctariness oc cise o/c iciclelarelsieleieinjeie clsiotelete oie ele dic wejeae melee en aee
Nectarine—Peach Cross........eeeeees 0 «6:5 6s s/cloeia clslelelelnterateeaas
Nectarine—Peach Cross.........sesse00. oe oie o eieie’e cle elelalelatatatemnneaam
Nursery Stock
Nursery Stock Awaiting Final Transplantation............ 51
Orchards
The Old Idea of the Orchard and the New.........++es0+55 9
Making Over an Old Orchard...........e.e00¢ ava blcre ere Sie Siete
Combining Young Orchard and Berry Field................ 59
Orchard.and Vine Fields. <j). ccsie sles eels aoe BARD Dore it
A Typical, Regrafted, Rehabilitated Apple Orchard........ 65
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Continued)
Oranges
Page
emerraie Orne Groves sins sc uwse oxvecen wade esd cub eats Pan
Cross Between Orange and Lemon.........sccesssecses ee
Peaches
The Ideal Peach—and Some Others.........csseccecesece Phe
Selecting Among Peach Seedlings.........cccscecccvcceees 55
OES SC eee oe 66
SpEeratigC PORCH: 10k DIOSSOMLs i scacviccccseuebesesvoasweiens 143
mmo Ereestone dian Peach. ..ccccecccsvccvascenccanewece 145
PBRSRATIBILG SCSI « 5357s odin we bud db diniew Pedisenes «sod cemaaele 147
EMDINIMATTIO SRPORCI, 0). oi cioa sb c since es 0 clasts ses c-0.0anpenee 149
PMEMUSEIR PMON, 5 oo cscs oie cists ood cle nie erema es 0:0 9 6 eleiatnyarh 153
PIPETTE CMUCIITO PIP CRCU 5:0 a wissen s Wevsie ale e'atn'e' wise Wa win w oid arate 155
PE EITIOE SHCUCING . . 5.0 ass aleve cans. -cleisna wees vanes dem eae 157
SIEM TICOCHYS (MOUFGIUNES. <c.inscacccsccccecddesceevewen 159
RRUITEMRCRECNT EXER PS US co. 5/4/4160) arn sese; 6 lm aww’, 60 WA 00/00 6 0'e ala wareinalarale’s 169
ern tee OSE TTC OSN 5b \c «'o'as b/0'e.0 «\s\0 0:0.6 bio. be e:ema ew hialelamte 171
INSGtATING—PeaCh CLOSES... scccccecsccccceccatice cele hiaiea iia 173
Pears
Getting Color into the Pear........... aawieais ete eas adiaiene oe:0, eee
DSPs PERRI SORE EMBTN OS 0c talar dedi ci6 6. sieitels. v'6)w.pie/aie-a. © o's oem aa'ale.o/ere <omemanld
ACO E AUMECCTATIELPELIC SIGLE- OF Ib. b'ae's cv'es cslebecveeenenensisiee . 109
SaUsICAETICLE SETINTAG, (TUDES i o4\n 6514's aioe iovn ss uo ota «eww slalciewte sere re |
ME MUUCEE TNR S LONG. oie emiai an arava dinte's W's ’aie elas eine pieio wwe .e'u ela pis wisthe Pies |e
DE BO ns Oe eS err ry AI |
RERUNS! REREAD Sc Oy atlas O's (np laa /ay'ns) otk wib)evdiaie S/otale ale'ola wiain a selsie:Maratere Paap 3 |
RIMAGE Ett DASGLOUS «16 od on. cie'eis. o'n cise ev sivcees Srrpion wele
UPNEASERSESTEL ACCOR TING. chet as aic. ce aia lelarsiaie eidveis S'n\s 0\e vies eieleie aim ep acer - 129
RIP MESTRT TCG: 2 (o/cb die) e's < 0's srele'e'as’a.b o'0'si0's dw Wlh\em wise elele ava ‘ite Tua
NSEEME EASA IICRY 5 1c. bic\e\s' cs a!0 side 010.65, € 01 810’ wiela v6 biciy wiv cle ei miaeede 133
EP RCE EMA 1 sn ara lava rw ainsi wie ee 8:6, 6\Kiniow'eisiuie sulele maleic a ciniale 137
PLEA YL PEER 5% aiaieisis (e's) a(o 6 0/6i0 aviels o\e.6 6a wid ¢/elevelaia PP
Pear Seedlings Grafted on Quince Stocks...........ee0005 + 237
PP RTIE OL) AIPALOL PCAs ois)s s\cs'e 's 5 ove 0joi0'e vss piaias.e's oa\e séisvee 0S
Persimmons
Group of Persimmons.......... cvaleleleiaceiess lerdiaiarc ett pavate wits awe ane
Persimmon Tree in Bearing.......ccscosccsese Saini mata lete ate 285
Plums
A Row of Plum Seedlings....... a hiln’ wise tal ecbince wp) tei aia eenin tan ea
Pomegranates
Ay rtaniely Of) POMICEYANIGTES . < s,c\0.6.i's o.a.eicclele isis cies cieeeje ade welaee
Group of Pomegranate Fruits........... arelaiaiciom ate eiaminte sss Ge
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Continued)
Plumcot
Page ©
The Plwmcote +. cioase clewiccs ocies sce > oje's sisisietslsiaaietelaisle tet yo aan
Quinces
The Japanese Quince.......... wie ove ait ais aka pete vss ataeapeee as |i
Fruit of the Japanese Quince....... o's o-6 o2e'e éievels she: eed atetaelte Cage
Foliage of the Japanese Quince............ Scie ete vent etter gis oie te
Chinese Quince. .\Jioeie.. see ese ivimss SOSA ROOROD OG Gc boS a e\eiate oom
Van Deman Quinees.. 20 ee eae woe olenc\Sralal sheteie emer eeners ino 200
Santa TROSa QUINCE. coe «01e ai> ctolelelecreleiat lolol iei lenin 3 tte |cie/o'aa eee
The Pineapple Quince on the Tree....... Jere os Claas vee. SOOM
Pear Seedlings Grafted on Quince Stocks........... 3 eles 6 ae ou
The Medlar—A Cousin of the Quince...... 4b elstc:cherele hei Boor RE)
Seedlings
A Boz. of Seedlings... ccc core cele ncjoheis cleretaeriete Apeerorec,
A Row of Plum Seedlings............... 3 a8 ele cbie oie atcre tale eae
A Bunch of Selected Seedlings............... ea. she beyaterene Peart re!
ThesGhoice-of Seedlings nc ccie-tlererstaor= a/eieca [aie sielele oleh crolaney stata Mas
Selecting Among Peach Seedlings. . se e'ain's ale ue ole ielciel ores ee amma ;
Other Nameless Seedlings (Cherry) ............c.eceeeee.. 89
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