Luther Burbank 49 



of fifteen children. People talk of thirteen as an unlucky 

 number, and certainly Luther had his share of ill-luck. 

 It was plain from the very first that he was a plant -lover. 

 When he was only three years old he made a pet of a 

 little cactus plant in a pot, and carried it everywhere 

 with him. When one day he, plant in hand, got knocked 

 down, the pot broken, and the earth scattered, he wept 

 bitterly, yet at once set to work to re-pot and mend the 

 poor broken little plant. It is an interesting coincidence 

 that one of his biggest works in later life had to do with 

 the cactus family. 



He was born a gardener, but his parents put him into 

 an engineering-shop in which his uncle was interested, 

 and where the boy worked to the best of his ability. 

 Whatever his job Luther always did his best. Luckily for 

 the boy, this uncle had a garden and a greenhouse, and 

 on half-holidays Luther was allowed to work among the 

 plants. He used to thin out carefully the bunches of 

 grapes, and he raised a number of grape seedlings. So he 

 carried on until when he was sixteen he brought to his 

 uncle an invention for improving a machine in the factory, 

 an invention so valuable that the owners of the factory 

 offered him a big salary if he would devote all his time to 

 similar inventions. The boy did not hesitate. 



" It's plants I love," he said, " not machinery. The 

 one thing I want to do is have a nursery garden of my 

 own." 



The owners and Luther's uncle were much disappointed, 

 but the lad's mind was made up, and his uncle, seeing 

 how keen he was, promised that he would not oppose his 

 wish. The result was that before he was twenty years old 

 young Burbank was owner and manager of a small nur- 

 sery garden. He got his capital — part of it, at any rate — 

 by the sale of a new variety of potato which he had grown 

 in his uncle's garden from seed. 



The nursery garden grew and expanded rapidly. 



