LUTHER BURBANK 
some definite experiments in hybridizing. I first 
selected for the experiment the white nectarine 
and the Muir peach. In 1895 numerous crosses 
were made, using principally the white nectarine 
pollen to fertilize the blossoms of the Muir peach, 
a very hardy, vigorous, abundantly productive 
variety of the peach that is largely cultivated in 
California. 
The white nectarine has a rich flavor, but it is 
too acid to eat without cooking. It is of large 
size, has a large stone, and white flesh, with per- 
fectly smooth white skin. The Muir peach, on the 
other hand, is very sweet, with firm yellow flesh, 
and an unusually small, free stone. A tree of this 
variety is unusually hardy, long-lived, and im- 
mune from that pest of the peach orchard, curl- 
leaf. It may be grown in a large variety of soils 
in locations where other peaches and nectarines 
often fail. 
The offspring of this union of nectarine and 
peach in due course came to fruiting age, and in 
some cases the fruit they bore was found to be of 
a quality superior to that of any peach or necta- 
rine at that time ever seen. In the second and 
third generation there appeared a varied com- 
pany, showing remarkable new combinations of 
qualities, and anomalies of form, size, color and 
flavor. 
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