PART II THE MAN 



LUTHER BURBANK 



"He took a little jostled wayside weed 

 His intuition keen without a peer 

 And read each wound and every weakness clear; 

 Then struck his finger gently on the seed, 

 And touched the slender starving wind-blown reed, 

 And to it said, 'Thou ailest here and here, 

 Thou needest only food and loving cheer 

 To gladden any garden, glen or mead.' 

 He walked with Patience many a tedious hour, 

 With Genius' glowing lamp aflame in hand; 

 Or sat with her in Wisdom's citadel, 

 And heard the watchman calling, 'All is well'; 

 Then saw the shrunken, blighted bloom expand 

 Into a graceful, snowy, starry flower." 



MARY BELLE WILLIAMS. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE NEW POTATO 



While Luther Burbank was yet a young man in New 

 England he purchased land and devoted a few years to 

 Market gardening. In this garden there was a plot of 

 Early Rose potatoes, which, as is the habit of this variety, 

 seldom bore fruit from the blossom, as did most other 

 kinds of potatoes at that time. Most grown folks now, 

 who were children then, remember that this fruit was 



