254 LUTHER BURBANK 



to get a start, because fruit trees cannot be 

 brought to a condition of bearing, or even to a 

 stage where cions for grafting are available, in 

 a short time. And I had neither capital nor 

 credit, being virtually a stranger in a strange 

 land. 



So it was necessary to continue to gain a live- 

 lihood by working at carpentry, in which voca- 

 tion I had now established a sufficient reputa- 

 tion to insure me pretty steady work. But 

 every cent that I could earn, beyond the barest 

 cost of maintenance, was put into stock for my 

 prospective nursery; and, as has been said, the 

 evening hours after the day's work with the 

 plane, saw, and hammer was over, were devoted 

 to the culture of seedlings. 



The tedious and almost disheartening char- 

 acter of the task of establishing myself as a 

 practical nurseryman at Santa Rosa may per- 

 haps be illustrated about as tangibly as other- 

 wise could be done by the citation of memoranda 

 from old account books, which show that the 

 total sales of nursery products in 1877, the first 

 year that my nursery was supposed to be in 

 operation, amounted to just $15.20. The prod- 

 ucts that brought this munificent return are 

 listed as "Nursery stock and ornamental and 

 flowering plants." 



