A VISIT TO LUTHER BUR BANK. 3*9 



A VISIT TO LUTHER BURBANK.* 



By PROFhSSOR HUGO DE VRIES, 



UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND. 



FOE many years I had wished to make a study of fruit culture in 

 California and especially of the production of new varieties. 

 One reason which, more than others, made me decide to accept an invi- 

 tation to visit California was the prospect of making the personal 

 acquaintance of Luther Burbank. 



Burbank is the man who creates all the novelties in horticulture, a 

 work which every one can not do. It requires a great genius and an 

 almost incredible capacity for work, together with a complete devotion 

 to the purpose in view, to accomplish such results. Burbank possesses 

 all these qualifications, and his previous achievements have excelled all 

 expectations to such an extent that it is rightly presumed that no pos- 

 sible improvements are beyond his reach. In fact, the most impossible 

 things are attributed to him, and the credulous American people expect 

 from him novelties which any person who knows would immediately 

 declare to be nonsense. I once had a conversation, in a Pullman car, 

 with a lady and a gentleman who told me all kinds of interesting 

 stories about plants and fruits, about climate and places and many 

 other things. They knew, of course, Burbank. Every American does, 

 who pretends to know anything about fruits. They told me all about 

 the large and juicy plums, the new pears, the beautiful flowers, and a 

 number of other creations of his. But by far the best and most deli- 

 cious fruit, entirely new in form, color and flavor, was, they said, a 

 hybrid between a raspberry and a mulberry! Over this mystic novelty 

 her enthusiasm was inexhaustible ! 



As soon as I had decided about my plans I wrote to Burbank and 

 told him my desire. I had previously been in correspondence with 



* Authorized translation from the Dutch, by Dr. Pehr Olsson-Seffer, Stan- 

 ford University. This article was written by Dr. H. de Vries, the eminent 

 botanist and originator of the mutation-theory, while in California last summer. 

 It was originally published in the magazine ' de Gids ' in Holland, and forms 

 a part of the third chapter of a book ' Naar California ' by de Vries, which 

 recently appeared in Amsterdam. It is of considerable interest to note the im- 

 pressions de Vries, the scientific botanical experimenter, received during his 

 first visit to Luther Burbank, the foremost practical plant-breeder in the world, 

 whose remarkable achievements have created world-wide admiration, and to 

 whom the Carnegie Institution recently granted an annual appropriation to 

 insure the undisturbed continuation of his work for the next ten years. 



