Practice of Plant Breeding 



and to love every kind of plant and of flower, but 

 especially cactus'.* 



He migrated to California, where for many years he 

 had a very hard struggle. Then he obtained an order 

 for 20,000 young prune trees to be supplied within nine 

 months. 



To raise a prune tree from seed requires at least 

 two and a half years. But Burbank planted almond- 

 seeds which, in that stimulating atmosphere, grow very 

 rapidly, and budded 20,000 prune buds on to them as 

 soon as they were large enough. To-day those 20,000 

 prunes are said to form one of the finest orchards in 

 California. 



The system upon which he seems to work does not 

 apparently differ from those employed by others in any 

 essential character, but his selections and his crossings 

 are done upon a scale unprecedented in its magnitude. 



At the end of certain experiments he burnt in one of 

 his bonfires no less than 65,000 two- and three-year-old 

 berry bushes. His plums are grown by the mile, and 

 his grafts and hybrids are made by the thousand. 



Then also he has an experience which is unrivalled, 

 and a skill which can tell from the foliage of a plum 

 whether its fruit will be worth keeping or not. The 

 climate which he has selected is probably the best in 

 the world, and land must be extraordinarily cheap. 



These advantages are possessed surely by no other 

 plant-breeder. Moreover, he does not himself distribute 

 and sell his creations. They are sold as soon as pro- 

 duced to various American firms, whose skill and ex- 

 perience in advertisement admit of no dispute. 



In this country we would very much like to obtain 

 some at least of those creations of his. There is his 



* See Harwood, "New Creations in Plant Life," and De Vries, "Plant- 

 breeding," for these and other details. 



289 T 



