MEN WHO HAVE SUCCEEDED-IV 



LUTHER BURBANK CONTINUED — HIS 

 WORK — A CHAPTER OF SUCCESS 



THE RESULTS attained by Luther 

 Burbank have been so numerous 

 and wonderful, that we must make 

 special reference to some features of his 

 work. 



Methods. — Starting out with a theory con- 

 trary to the usual one of fixity of species, he 

 held that the Univ^erse is " eternally unsta- 

 ble in form, eternally immutable in sub- 

 stance. There is," says he, "Not one weed 

 or flower, wild or domesticated, which will 

 not, sooner or later, respond liberally to 

 good cultivation and persistent selection. 

 What can be more delightful than to adopt 

 the promising individual from among a race 

 of vile, neglected weeds, down-trodden and 

 despised by all ; to see it gradually change 

 its sprawling habits, its coarse, ill smelling 

 foliage, its insignificant blossoms of dull 

 color to an upright plant with handsome, 

 glossy, fragrant leaves, blossoms of every 

 hue, and with fragrance as pure and lasting 

 as could be desired. Weeds are weeds be- 

 cause they are jostled, crowded, cropped 

 and trampled upon, scorched by fierce 

 heat, starved or, perhaps, suffering with 

 cold, wet feet, tormented by insect pests 

 or lack of nourishing foods and sunshine. 

 Most of them have no opportunity for blos- 

 soming out in luxurious beauty and abund- 

 ance. A few are so fixed in their habits 

 that it is better to select an individual for 

 adoption and improvement from a race 

 which is more pliable. This stability of 

 character cannot often be known except by 

 careful trial, therefore members from several 

 races at the same time may be selected 

 with advantage ; and the most pliable and 



easily educated ones will soon make the 

 fact manifest by showing a tendency to 

 " break " or vary slightly, or perhaps pro- 

 foundly, from the wild state. Any varia- 

 tion should be at once seized upon and nu- 

 merous seedlings raised from this individual. 

 In the next generation, one or several even 

 more marked variations will be almost cer- 

 tain to appear, for when a plant once wakes 

 up to the new influences brought to bear 

 upon it, the road is opened for endless im- 

 provement in all directions, and the opera- 

 tor finds himself with a wealth of new forms 

 which is almost discouraging to select from 

 as, in the first place, it was to induce the 

 plant to vary in the least." 



Cultivation and environment are, in Mr. 

 Burbank's view, capable of producing won- 

 derful changes in the common forms ot 

 plant life, and his first aim, in consistency 

 with his theory, is to so treat the species to 

 be improved that it will have extraordinary 

 vigor stored up, which will sooner or later 

 be manifest in its breaking away in some 

 details from its usual characteristics. When 

 this stage has been reached the greater pos- 

 sibilities are open by crossing with other 

 species, in order to breed into the subject 

 such traits as shall bring about the ideal 

 fruit or flower. Nor has Mr. Burbank con- 

 fined his operations to individuals of one 

 genus to pollinate individuals of another, 

 but he has succeeded in crossing plants 

 belonging to entirely diff'erent genera, thus 

 producing true hybrids. 



Since Botany has become one of the school 

 subjects, no one needs to be told how plants 

 are pollinated by applying the pollen grains 



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