26 LUTHER BURBANK 



christened the new potato "Burbank" in honor of the 

 originator, and kindly allowed the young man to keep 

 ten of the tubers. 



Burbank did not get rich from the sale of his potato, 

 but let us see what the habit of observation and the dili- 



Burbank potatoes. 



gence of one young man has meant to the world. From 

 one tiny seed that young Burbank planted in the spring of 

 1872 the "Burbank" potato came. More than five hun- 

 dred million bushels of this potato have been raised during 

 the past forty years; enough to make one million six hun- 

 dred and sixty thousand car loads, which would make up a 

 solid train of potatoes to reach more than half around this 

 planet. A gentleman connected with the United States 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C., many 

 years ago made the following statement: 



"The Burbank potato has added to the productivity of 

 the country $17,000,000, and some one has calculated 



