LUTHER BURBANK 
fect that suggests itself is that the newly devel- 
oped cherries, particularly the sweet ones, lack 
something of hardiness. They grow to perfection 
in California, but as yet they are little grown in 
the eastern United States, and not at all in regions 
north of Ohio and Missouri. Yet the race of cher- 
ries, taken as a whole, constitutes a very hardy 
stock. The wild cherries of the eastern United 
States grow far to the north and are able to with- 
stand the winters even in regions where the mer- 
cury sometimes freezes. 
It should be possible, and doubtless it will 
prove possible, to combine the best existing vari- 
eties of cherry with some of the wild cherries, and 
thus to develop a race of cherries that will retain 
the present qualities and introduce additional 
qualities of hardiness fitting them for growth 
anywhere in the United States; in fact this is a 
work in which I am now engaged. 
The common choke cherry (Prunus Virgini- 
ana) is a very hardy tree, unusually productive, 
and almost indifferent as to soil and climatic con- 
ditions. 
I have made experiments in the cultivation of 
this tree, raising thousands of seedlings from fruit 
of a large, handsome specimen that grew by the 
roadside near Westfield, Massachusetts. The ex- 
periments as far as conducted have been satisfac- 
[96] 
