112 LUTHER BURBANK 



have changed as rapidly in recent years as have 

 the best conceptions of human pedagogy. 



Take the very important matter of height of 

 tree as a case in point. Not long ago the or- 

 chardist, in developing a young tree, was careful 

 to see that it was trained in the nursery so that 

 its lowest branches were several feet from the 

 ground. 



But the well-informed orchardist of to-day 

 heads his tree in such a way that the bearing 

 branches start only eighteen inches or two feet 

 from the ground. 



Where formerly high ladders were required to 

 gather the fruit, a modern orchardist, for many 

 years after his trees are in bearing, can stand 

 on the ground and reach the main bulk of the 

 fruit; and even that which falls is not mutilated 

 and bruised as it used to be. Also the trees are 

 much less apt to be broken or blown over by the 

 wind. 



And in all this I am not referring to such 

 "freak" trees as, for example, my Pineapple 

 quinces, scarcely waist high yet almost breaking 

 under the weight of mammoth fruits, but of the 

 commercial orchard, and have in mind in partic- 

 ular the apple tree, because it is with regard to 

 this tree that the most conspicuous transforma- 

 tion has been effected. Plum trees and peach 



