LUTHER BURBANK 
the profit to the asparagus grower, simply because 
of the trifle that the more costly asparagus stands 
up through all the operations from the garden 
to the table, while the other, broken down in 
structure, presents a messy, unappetizing appear- 
ance when served. 
Since it costs no more to raise the higher priced 
asparagus, after the expense of a few seasons of 
selection has been paid for, what excuse can there 
be for producing the other kind? 
It would be impossible, here, to begin to 
catalog the improvements which can be wrought— 
improvements in the size, shape, color, texture, 
juiciness, flavor, sweetness, or chemical content 
of fruits; improvements in the appearance, ten- 
derness, taste, cooking qualities, and nutritive 
elements in vegetables; improvements in length 
and strength of fiber in cotton, flax and hemp; 
improvements in size, flavor, solidity, thinness of 
shell of nuts; improvements in the quantity and 
the quality of kernels in grains; improvements in 
amount and in value of the chemical content of 
sugar beets, sorghum, coffee, tea and all other 
plants which are raised for their extracts; im- 
provements, wonderful improvements, in the stalk 
of corn, even, so that though we could make it 
bear no more kernels, or no more ears, it would 
still yield us a better and bigger forage crop; 
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