LUTHER BURBANK 



From the outset I was convinced that by 

 proper hybridizing and selective breeding it could 

 be made valuable. 



Next season the blossoms of the freak plum 

 were fertilized with the pollen of the French 

 prune and with that of numerous other plums 

 and prunes. 



The seedlings from these crosses were grafted 

 to ensure their earlier bearing. In the first 

 generation I obtained some plums fully twice as 

 large as their seed parent. Most of these had 

 stones, however, and were soft, sour fruits. A 

 very few of them were partially stoneless, and 

 from these the work was continued. 

 Getting Results 



The next generation showed some general 

 improvement in the growth of the tree and the 

 size and quality of the fruit. All the seedlings of 

 the cross from the Sans Noyau upon the French 

 prune w-ere grafted and fruited, even though 

 many of them showed the thornj', dwarfed, ill- 

 shaped tj'^pe of tree of the uncultivated ancestor. 



After two or three generations there was a 

 marked tendency to improvement. 



In a large lot of seedlings, in 1904, I obtained 

 two that seemed to me of favorable appearance — 

 for much can be known from the qualit>^ of leaf 

 and stem long before the time of fruiting. 



[110] 



