EDITORIAL AND GENERAL 



Volume V 



JANUARY, 1913 



Number 9 



The Luther Burbank Society. 



This association organized at Santa 

 Rosa, California, is Chartered by the 

 state and is to do its work under the 

 motto: "Not for profit." It will aid 

 in the dissemination of popular Bur- 

 bank methods. Mr. Burbank has done 

 great and good work not only in im- 

 proving some of nature's products from 

 the horticultural point of view, but of 

 setting a standard of real interest in 

 nature. Among his principal achieve- 

 ments are cited the Burbank potato, the 

 walnut tree, the spineless cactus, and 

 a long list of other products of mother 

 earth as, for example, the prune, toma- 

 to, asparagus, squash, rhubarb, cherry, 

 blackberry. Here is an important 

 statement. 



"The Carnegie Institution at Wash- 

 ington, recognizing the universal value 

 of Luther Burbank's records, made an 

 appropriation of one hundred thousand 

 dollars in 1905 for the purpose of com- 

 piling them for scientific purposes ex- 

 clusively." 



But such publication of Burbank's 

 works would not accomplish the great- 

 est good. Here is what the Society 

 proposes to do : 



"But the scientific part of Mr. Bur- 

 bank's work, important and interesting 

 as it is, is not what the farmer needs. 



"What the farmer needs is practical 

 results — and definite instructions on 

 how to apply them." 



That is exactly where we are in per- 

 fect sympathy with this new society 

 as it explains. 



"It is the difference between mathe- 

 matics and accounting — between the 

 patent office drawings of an invention 

 and working blue-prints for manufac- 

 turing — between theory and practice." 



We thoroughly agree that what is 

 needed in disseminating nature infor- 

 mation is not so much what shall reach 

 the exclusive few, as what shall benefit 

 and influence the masses. Isn't it a 

 curious fact that where millions are 



Copyright 1913 by The Agassiz Association, Arcadia: Sound Beach, Conn. 



