LUTHER BURBANK 
peach has been cultivated in so many different 
regions and for so many different purposes that 
it is highly variable. Its affinity with other stone 
fruits has been illustrated over and over in the 
story of hybridizing experiments already related. 
So it seems at least within the possibilities 
that a way may be found to combine the stoneless 
condition which has now been bred into the germ 
plasm of one member of the stone-fruit family, 
with the recognized qualities of the peach, in a 
hybrid—produced, no doubt, only after a series 
of experiments extending over many years—that 
will represent the ideal of a stoneless peach. 
If the qualities of the almond seed were also 
bred into the combination, the final product—a 
fruit having the matchless flavor of the peach, a 
perfectly smooth skin, and a stoneless seed of de- 
licious edible quality—would assuredly be the 
paragon of orchard fruits. That such a fruit will 
ultimately be produced there can be little doubt. 
When we reflect on the long gap that separates the 
peach of to-day from its primitive wild ancestor, 
we heed not regard such further development as 
that just suggested as being very formidable. 
But, of course, there is a time element that can- 
not be ignored. 
So here, as with other orchard fruits, it is only 
such experimenters as have the gift of patience 
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