20 LUTHER BURBANK 



that time. The town of Lancaster had an excellent pub- 

 lic library, and no one appreciated it more than did Lu- 

 ther. / He read books of natural science, entering eagerly 

 into the study of each. For a time geology and the study 

 of rocks occupied all his leisure moments. A slate quarry 

 near by, the clay banks with vari-colored strata,* and the 

 great granite boulders of Rollstone Hill were examined 

 with care. 



Books descriptive of plant life were read and re-read, 

 ever with the desire to know more of the life and habits 

 of the plant companions. A cousin, who was a student 

 of science (&nd a personal friend of the great Agassiz, be- 

 came interested in the questioning young mind, and al- 

 though several years older than the lad, the two became 

 fast friends. 



Chemistry and physics, each in turn, held his thought, 

 while he experimented with an old teakettle in the back 

 yard, making steam whistles and toy engines. A study 

 of the heavenly bodies and evenings with the stars fol- 

 lowed. Falling meteors (shooting stars), the milky way 

 that broad bright path in the sky supposed to be the 

 light of countless stars and the aurora borealis, or northern 

 lights, which appeared like a brilliant electric arch in the 

 night sky, all were of the most intense interest to him. 

 He excelled in free-hand drawing and in painting in oil 

 colors, for into each study he threw his whole soul, and 



* Beds or layers of rock. 



