AND HIS PLANT SCHOOL 27 



that if all the Burbank potatoes raised in one year were 

 placed in a row, end to end, touching one another, the 

 line would be long enough to make three rows of potatoes 

 from the earth to the moon. 51 



After selling his potato, Burbank decided to leave his 

 home in New England and seek a climate more favorable 

 to the work he most enjoyed plant experimentation. 

 With the $150 received from his potato he purchased a 

 ticket for the Golden State and brought with him the ten 

 new potatoes for trial in the West. 



He engaged in the nursery business for a few years, 

 but through these years he did not forget the precious 

 seed ball nor its descendants; indeed by this time people 

 over the greater part of the United States were eating 

 Burbank potatoes and the name "Burbank' 7 was becom- 

 ing a household word in other lands. 



It was early discovered that this potato would with- 

 stand the blight better than other kinds, and as this dis- 

 ease had been at various times prevalent in Ireland since 

 the great famine in 1846, this variety of potato was hailed 

 with delight in the Emerald Isle; for the potato is one of 

 the principal foods of the Irish peasants. 



The people of Massachusetts in the neighborhood of 

 the market garden of so long ago are now preparing to 

 erect a monument to the Burbank of Science on the spot 

 where originated the potato that has so largely increased 

 the food supply of the world. 



