16 LUTHER BURBANK 



something about one-tenth of the total expendi- 

 ture for my experimental work. 



In importance, up to the present time, judged 

 by results, the work with the plum may repre- 

 sent perhaps one-sixth of all my work; in extent 

 and variety, perhaps one-tenth of the total. In 

 commercial value, up to the present, perhaps the 

 plums may be credited with one-third; but they 

 will rank by no means so high when the final 

 ledger is balanced, for there are very numerous 

 other productions, among them the cactus, that 

 loom large in prospective value. 



So in the end perhaps the economic rank 

 of the plums, among the total of my plant 

 productions, will not be more than one- 

 twentieth. 



Yet when I state that from among the almost 

 countless new varieties that have been developed 

 through these forty years of experiment, sixty- 

 seven have so far been thought worthy of intro- 

 duction, and some thousands of races are still 

 undergoing tests, some inkling of the work in- 

 volved will be gained. And when I add that the 

 Burbank plums now make up about one-third 

 of the total export of the plums from California 

 year by year, and that my proteges are as 

 popular in South America, Europe, Asia, 

 Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and in 



