62 LUTHER BURBANK 



Long before a grape vine has come to the age 

 of fruiting, the taste of the tendrils may give 

 a fair idea of the flavor of the grapes it will 

 ultimately bear. 



Moreover the seedling vines that produce 

 bushy stems that are small and much branched, 

 and have small leaves, will almost invariably 

 produce meager clusters of small fruit of poor 

 quality. So the wise experimenter will root out 

 such vines without letting them come to maturity. 



Among plums and peaches the correlation of 

 characters is exceedingly valuable. 



The case of the plum seedlings already cited 

 suggests the possibility of pre judgment of fruit 

 from observations of small seedlings. There are 

 a good many characters of leaf and twig that are 

 almost too intangible for description, like the 

 changing expressions of the human face, or like 

 delicately graded colors, yet which to the prac- 

 ticed eye are full of meaning. 



COLOR OF FOLIAGE A GUIDE 



A broad general distinction that is fairly 

 obvious to any observer is found in the color of 

 the foliage. It may be expected that a plum or 

 peach seedling having foliage of a reddish purple 

 color will produce fruit dark-colored not only in 

 skin but in flesh. And of course the selection 



