PERSONAL HISTORY 201 



the steaming hothouse at night, and exposed to 

 the damp soil and climate by day, his strength 

 gave way, and he returned to Santa Rosa only to 

 be laid low by fever. But for the kindly minis- 

 trations of a good neighbor his work might here 

 have ended. A good woman, seeing his need, 

 furnished him fresh milk from her family cow, 

 and, without hope of reward, saved Luther Bur- 

 bank, not alone to family and friends, but to the 

 world. 



A small piece of land was now rented and 

 while working at carpentry during the day, 

 he devoted the long summer evenings to 

 preparations for starting a small nursery of 

 his own. 



With the nursery, the Burbank potato was 

 advertised in a small way for seed. This helped 

 out a little ; he was also employed as collector of 

 native California tree seeds for several American 

 and European seed firms, and in this way became 

 acquainted with most of the plants and trees that 

 grow in this part of the State, the locality where 

 they grow, the time of blooming, the time of 

 ripening the seed and other particulars that have 

 since been of considerable importance to him in 

 his work. 



No path had been blazed for his footsteps, for 

 his work has no precedent, but as Copernicus 



