LUTHER BURBANK 
type of fruit that will withstand the rigorous 
climate and conditions of the cold northern plains 
of Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. What 
has just been said suggests that the fruit is not 
truly a cherry, yet the botanists seem to feel that 
it occupies an intermediate station, and is more 
closely related to the cherry than any other fruit. 
Such being the case, it should be possible to 
hybridize this dwarf hardy species with the 
cherry. The tree has the further valuable prop- 
erty of being able to grow on dry, barren sands. A 
hybrid cherry having this characteristic from one 
of its ancestors might be expected to constitute a 
fruit that would grow in regions too arid for the 
existing cherry as well as in regions that are too 
cold. And this is but one of several lines of pos- 
sible development that invite the plant experi- 
menter who will give attention to this type of 
cherry. 
To suggest one other line of improvement, it 
is sufficient to call attention to the familiar fact 
that the cherry has a very brief season. The 
Burbank cherry fruits two or three weeks earlier 
than others, as we have learned in another chap- 
ter. But even so the total period during which 
cherries of different varieties are in fruit is very 
limited. One hears reports of an exceptional 
cherry tree that fruits a second time in the au- 
[102] 
