228 LUTHER BURBANK 



It is a plant of extraordinary vigor. A single 

 cane may grow more than twenty-five feet 

 sometimes even fifty feet in a season, and attain 

 near the base a diameter of an inch to an inch 

 and a half. 



The aggregate growth of cane of a single plant 

 in a season may exceed a thousand feet one 

 fifth of a mile. 



And in point of fruit production, the Hima- 

 laya far surpasses any other berry plant ever 

 grown. Reports tell of a single bush bearing 

 two hundred pounds of berries in a season. 



"My daughter and I picked fifty pounds of 

 berries from one Himalaya bush the latter part 

 of August, 1906," writes one enthusiast, "and we 

 scarcely missed them from the bush. This was 

 after many others had picked from the same 

 bush. I picked three pounds standing in one 

 position. I could have picked double that 

 amount if I could have reached into the bushes 

 farther, but the entangled branches with their 

 sharp thorns prevented me." 



The narrator adds this comment: "It is my 

 opinion that if this single bush were properly 

 pruned, fertilized, and irrigated, as well as 

 shaded from the extreme heat of the sun in July 

 and August, it would bear between three and 

 four hundred pounds in a season." 



