50 Master Minds of Modern Science 



Within five years the profits were five thousand dollars a 

 year, and before long they had risen to ten. All his spare 

 time the young man devoted to raising better varieties 

 of ordinary plants, and his nursery soon became famous 

 for its magnificent potatoes. Profits went up until they 

 reached four thousand pounds a year, but nearly all these 

 profits were spent by Burbank on various experiments. 



In the year 1893 Burbank startled his friends in Massa- 

 chusetts by suddenly selling out his big and flourishing 

 business. It had long been in his mind that this Northern 

 climate, with its long, cold winter, was not the best for 

 his experiments, and after a visit to California he decided 

 that the soil and climate of that state promised far greater 

 opportunities. He made up his mind to start a new 

 business at Santa Rosa, and there he went with a small 

 stock of his already famous Burbank potatoes, but without 

 more money than was sufficient to buy a few acres of land. 



He found Calif ornia ideal for the raising of new varieties, 

 and plunged into his work with tremendous energy. Too 

 much energy, for he became so keen on producing new 

 sorts of fruits, flowers, and vegetables that he neglected 

 the paying side of the business, so that before long he 

 became very short of money. It takes years to produce 

 new varieties of plants, and sometimes these years are 

 wasted and the expectations of the grower are not 

 realized. Like most geniuses, Luther Burbank now had 

 a very bad time. He said : 



I have known what it is to feel the pangs of hunger, I have 

 slept in noisome places when I could call no roof my own ; I 

 have done the most repugnant and disagreeable work so as to 

 earn a pittance to keep body and soul together ; I have fought 

 off fever when I had not the money to pay for a daily pint of 

 milk which stood between me and possible death ; I have denied 

 myself all the minor luxuries of life and most of its comforts, 

 while for years I did not even own a microscope, so important 

 and indispensable an instrument in my work. 



