LUTHER BURBANK 



crop there, as elsewhere, in warm, arid climates. 

 The plant has aroused very unusual interest 

 in conservative Great Britain, where the older 

 varieties thrive and have been extensively grown, 

 specimens having been obtained direct from my 

 plantation by Robert Holmes, a member of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, and others. The 

 royal gardens of England are now supplied 

 with it. 



Meantime the Emperor of Japan and the King 

 of Italy obtained it directly from my gardens, and 

 the plant has been taken back to its original home 

 in New Zealand, whence the original stock came, 

 and in its improved or, one might better say, 

 metamorphosed condition, it now finds favor 

 there, whereas its ancestral form was justly 

 regarded as a plant of no importance. 



The Qualities of the New Rhubarb 



It must not be supposed that this wddely 

 extended approval of the rhubarb is dependent on 

 any mere caprice. It is based on qualities of the 

 most enduring and substantial character. Other- 

 wise, it w^ould not have been possible to plant 

 thousands of acres of this crop in California and 

 to find a ready market for the entire product in 

 the eastern United States. In point of fact, so 

 eager has been the market that the rhubarb has 

 been quite often called by its growers the "king 



[170] 



