NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



which, even in trees, we call character. These 

 trees answered every argument advanced. 

 They were the result of breeding and selec- 

 tion; they had not been long in growing, not 

 over a dozen years; they were economically 

 important. 



Some ten or fifteen years before, Mr. Bur- 

 bank had studied the question of tree improve- 

 ment with great care. All sides of the plant 

 life of the world appeal to him. If he can see 

 a chance for improvement, it matters not to 

 him what the obstacles in the way or what the 

 contentions of those who are chained to tradi- 

 tions. He had long seen a chance for marked 

 improvement in certain varieties of the wal- 

 nut. He took an English walnut and a com- 

 mon California black walnut, as types on 

 which to work, crossed them by fertilization, 

 raised seedlings from these, then selected the 

 very best of the progeny; and so bred for- 

 ward, ever picking out those which ap- 

 proached nearest his ideal until, at last, he 

 had a set of hybrid seedlings which he was 

 willing to trust to themselves. 



A half dozen of the trees were set out in 

 the hard earth in front of his house in the 



46 



