LUTHER BURBANK 
Japanese “rice beer” has been recently removed. 
It appears that carbonic acid in the absence of 
oxygen produces in the fruit precisely the chem- 
ical changes necessary to transform it from an 
astringent and inedible fruit to a highly palatable 
one. 
I have raised vast numbers of seedlings of the 
Japanese persimmon and have attempted to pro- 
duce new varieties by crossing this with the Amer- 
ican persimmon; but as yet I have not succeeded 
in effecting this hybridization—chiefly, perhaps, 
because the American species is such a shy bearer 
that I have had few good opportunities to cross- 
fertilize the two. 
Now that the good qualities of the persimmon 
are beginning to be more generally recognized, 
further experiments in this direction will probably 
be carried out, and there is every reason to ex- 
pect, arguing from analogy, that new and greatly 
improved races of persimmons may thus be 
developed. 
Whoever will contrast the hybrid Japanese- 
American plum of today as developed in my 
orchards at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol with the 
best plums of thirty years ago will see at least a 
suggestion of new possibilities in the prospective 
union of the Japanese and American persimmon. 
For the best existing varieties of persimmon—the 
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