BOTANY — BURBANK. I 25 



BOTANY. 



EXPERIMENTS IN PLANT DEVELOPMENT. 



Burbank, Luther, Santa Rosa, California. Grant No. 221. $10,000. 



The experiments under way are the most extensive ever carried 

 out, but from their very nature valuable results, either practical or 

 scientific, can not be obtained at once. The pursuit of long periods 

 of intensely careful and most accurate observations on a broad and 

 comprehensive scale is the only course whereby results which will 

 stand the test of time may be obtained. The laboratory and small 

 field experiments of the past have never included enough species 

 under study at the same time, and it has been impossible to draw 

 general conclusions safely, as the different tribes and species of plants 

 have each a slightly different story to relate. Very strong points 

 are brought out by studying the results of these vast experiments, 

 and much valuable material for thought will undoubtedly be found 

 in the scientific account of the experiments. 



Some of the experiments which have been carried on for the last 

 15 to 38 years are just coming to fruition. A partial list of the 

 plants upon which work is now progressing includes 300,000 new 

 hybrid plums, the work of the past 25 years in crossing about every 

 known species, and about 10,000 seedlings of this year's growth ; 

 10,000 new apples ; many thousand peach and peach-nectarine 

 crosses ; 8,000 new seedlings of pineapple quince ; 400 new cherry 

 seedlings; 1,000 new grapevines; 8,000 new hybrid chestnuts, 

 crosses of American, Japanese, Chinese, and Italian species ; 800 

 new and distinct hybrid walnuts, crosses of American black, Sieboldi, 

 English, Manschurica, butternut, and others ; many thousand apri- 

 cots and plumcots ; 5,000 select, improved, thornless " Goumi ' 

 (Eleagmis) bushes ; very numerous other fruits in less numbers, 

 and 10,000 new, rare, hybrid seedling potatoes. 



For the past eight years Opuntias and other cacti have been 

 secured from all parts of the world. Selections have been made and 

 crossed and thousands of hybrid seedlings raised, some tender or 

 hardy or gigantic or dwarf; some bearing gigantic fruits in pro- 

 fusion and other small ones of exquisite flavor. Some large groups 

 have been developed which produce enormous quantities of nutri- 

 tious food for all kinds of stock and poultry. This work promises 

 well for science and economics. Perhaps the next in importance 

 are the experiments on grasses and forage plants. Some new ones 

 of great value are being produced and some of rare scientific value 

 in the study of heredity and variation. 



