io6 HOLLIS W. FIELD 



''It would not be difficult for a man to breed a new rye, 

 wheat, barley, oat, and rice, each of which would produce an 

 average of one more grain to each head, one more grain could 

 be added to each ear of Indian corn, and in like manner an- 

 other potato could be added to each hill. Yet think of the 

 results in the granaries of this country alone! In only five 

 staples we should have annually, without effort and without 

 cost, more than 15,000,000 additional bushels of wheat, 

 20,000,000 bushels of oats, 1,500,000 bushels of barley, 

 5,200,000 bushels of corn, and more than 21,000,000 bushels 

 of potatoes." 



Yet this busy man has neighbors in adjoining fields who 

 look over his boundary fences to see the thin, stooped figure, 

 whom they recognize as having fooled away a lot of time pro- 

 ducing a fadeless flower, and as they look they smile com- 

 miseratingly, in spite of the fact that last year his Santa Rosa 

 farm received a pilgrimage of 6,000 men, many of them the 

 pick from the scientific Hfe of two hemispheres. 



On this CaUfornia farm Mr. Burbank has produced more 

 than 2,000 varieties of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, in some 

 of these demonstrations breaking all traditions of the florist 

 and gardener regarding the production of new species. Some 

 of the cuttings from his plants have sold readily at $100 a 

 running foot. A rose plant brought $800 from a seed house, 

 while the right of exclusive handling and sale of a single new 

 variety has brought thousands of dollars. In spite of this, 

 however, the Sonoma county farm frequently has brought 

 the wizard of the garden into debt, and recently the Carnegie 

 institute, recognizing the work of the man, set aside $10,000 

 a year for ten years to further his efforts. 



How much time and patience and active effort are exacted 

 from the man may be suggested in his production of the white 

 blackberry. Mr. Burbank has said that he did this for his 

 own curiosity, yet before he found the first blackberry bush 

 with a fruit at all hghter than the normal he had examined 

 25,000 of these bushes in bearing. Seventy five thousand 

 other bushes were subjected to the same patient scrutiny and 

 selection, to say nothing of patient crossings and fertilizers, 



