BURBANK'S PRODUCTION OF HORTICULTURAL 



NOVELTIES. 



The commercial catalogues of the horticulturists contain, yearly, 

 a certain number of novelties. Some of these are introduced from 

 foreign countries, others are due to accidental sports, but many 

 are the results of artificial improvements. They are produced either 

 by nurserymen or by private persons who charge the seedsmen with 

 their sale. As a rule, this production «f novelties is a subordinate 

 matter. It is very rare to find a man who devotes his whole life and 

 all his energies to the introduction and production of new, beautiful 

 or useful, horticultural plants. 



Such a man is Luther Burbank of Santa Rosa in California. He 

 is a nurseryman, but has no nursery in the ordinary sense of the 

 word. He is a tradesman, but sells nothing besides his novelties, 

 and these only to other dealers who will multiply them and offer 

 them to the general public. His aim is not the accumulation of 

 wealth, but to contribute to the welfare of other men by giving 

 them better food, better fruits and more beautiful flowers. He is 

 especially interested in the production of cheap ornamental plants 

 for private gardens, in order to disperse their enjoyment as widely 

 as possible. He is not engaged in pure scientific research, but of 

 late he has consented to have his methods and cultures published, 

 that they may become a guide for other men in their work along the 

 same line. The Carnegie Institution of Washington has accorded 

 him an annual grant of S 10,000 for ten years, thus enabling him 

 to extend his cultures on as large a scale as is possible for the work 

 of one man. Moreover, the Institution will take in hand the recor- 

 ding of the history of his experiments and thus create a source 

 of practical and scientific information of the highest importance 

 upon many questions of plant-breeding. 



Such a standard work is the more needed, since the methods 

 and results of European horticulturists are, as a rule, accessible to 

 American breeders only with difficulty. Burbank has had to redis- 

 cover many of the rules and practices which in Europe were more 

 or less universally known. His science and methods are his own 

 work, although in comparison with those of other horticulturists 



