100 LUTHER BURBANK 



cut away and grafts from other seedlings put in 

 their place for further tests. 



The usefulness of a tree as the basis of further 

 experiments is not finished by any means when it 

 has once been covered by grafted cions. The 

 same process may be practiced over and over for 

 twenty years or more. 



Doubtless no other observation made even by 

 experienced fruit growers is matter for greater 

 surprise than this utilization of single trees for 

 the carrying out of vast numbers of experiments. 

 The utility of the method, in the saving of both 

 land and time, is altogether obvious when once 

 attention is called to it. Yet few, even among 

 professional fruit growers, have hitherto gauged 

 the possibilities of the method. 



Of course, the average person who inspects my 

 farms has no thought of becoming an experi- 

 menter on a large scale and there would be no 

 occasion to practice multiple grafting and re- 

 grafting on any such scale as that employed at 

 the Gold Ridge farm. But I call particular at- 

 tention to this matter of fruit-tree grafting, be- 

 cause there is a lesson in it not merely for the 

 commercial grower of fruit, but for tens of thou- 

 sands of persons scattered across the length and 

 breadth of the country who have in their gardens 

 a few fruit trees, at present of no apparent 



