BURBANK PLUMS AND HOW 

 THEY WERE PRODUCED 



METHODS WHICH BROUGHT UNPRECE- 

 DENTED SUCCESS 



"l^TATURE teUs every secret once," says 



L ^ Emerson. 



And this, after all, is only the poet's 

 way of saying that there must always be some 

 one who is first to listen to the secrets that nature 

 is telling every hour. 



At least once in my life I was privileged to 

 listen to a secret that others had refused to hear 

 or had heard but vaguely. Doubtless it had been 

 whispered or half -whispered in many another 

 ear. But in my ear nature chanted this secret 

 perpetually, insistently, and in compelling 

 measure. 



She told and retold it to me until I had no 

 choice but to listen. 



The secret was this: 



New species of animals and plants often orig- 

 inate through the hybridization of old species. 



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