WIZARD OF THE GARDEN. 



BY HOLLIS W. FIELD. 



[Hollis W. Field, author and editor; born Williamsburg, Mo., April 10, 1865; edu- 

 cated in the public schools of Missouri ; began his career as a writer on the Kansas 

 City Times, and afterwards became city editor of the San Antonio Express; 

 removing to Chicago, he became connected with the Chicago Record, of which 

 paper he became editorial writer and literary editor; writer of many articles for 

 magazines and periodicals, chiefly on scientific and business topics.] 



Considering mother nature as occupying a distinct per- 

 sonality with some of the characteristics of her human prog- 

 eny, perhaps nothing since the exposures made by Darwin 

 could be better calculated to disturb the equanimity of the 

 old lady than to be shown a white blackberry. Not that 

 Luther Burbank of Sonoma county, Cal., has not been ex- 

 hibiting even stranger things to the old dame, but in the 

 white blackberry the practical joke is so markedly evident 

 from Mr. Burbank's own explanation of the circumstance, 

 that mother nature has had every reason to rise in her wrath 

 and administer a rebuke that is lasting. 



''I made the experiment merely to satisfy my own 

 curiosity," said Mr. Burbank, smiling upon a laden bush 

 bearing the phenomenal fruit. ''It is simply the inverse 

 application of the Darwinian philosophy. I kept on selecting 

 berries which, in ripening, did not turn pure black, and it was 

 only a matter of time and selection until I had a berry which 

 passed from its grass green immaturity to the pure white of 

 ripened flavor." 



But he is more than a joker — more than an experimenter 

 in the mysteries of plant life. Forty years ago he had given 

 the Burbank potato to the western world as his first practical 

 contribution to the world's commissary, and through these later 

 years, in which he has earned the title of Wizard of the Garden, 

 he has kept before him the time when man shall ''offer his 

 brother man, not bullets nor bayonets, but richer grains, better 

 fruits, and fairer flowers." That he has before him the utilitar- 

 ian values of his knowledge may be seen in his utterance : 



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