THE CREATION OF NEW TREES 



trees have apparently defied all precedent, 

 they are not only of phenomenal rapidity of 

 growth but they preserve all the hardness, 

 tenacity and evenness of grain of their slow- 

 growing ancestors. When I raised this point 

 in conversation with Mr. Burbank, he sprang 

 up from his chair in his characteristically ener- 

 getic manner, was out of the room in a trice, 

 and as swiftly returned from his repair -shop 

 bearing a piece from a huge branch which had 

 been cut off from one of the trees. It had 

 been roughly squared by the workman and 

 part of one side had been planed. The wood 

 was unusually heavy to the hand, more like 

 some dense tropic wood and very hard. It 

 was of a beautiful color, the finish even by the 

 plane alone showing its possibilities for taking 

 a high polish. It will make a rare wood in its 

 lighter color and will assume the darker wal- 

 nut color when it is soaked for many months 

 in water, as the black walnut is soaked before 

 sawing in order to give it the peculiar dark 

 hue. In point of fact, however, there are no 

 doubt many who would prefer the lighter 

 satiny tints to the darker. The heavy annual 

 growth of the tree, forming such large layers, 



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