264 LUTHER BURBANK 



THE LONG-DEFERRED PROJECT 



By about the year 1884 I was thoroughly 

 established with a nursery business that gave me 

 a sure income of ten thousand dollars or more per 

 year, and nothing more was required than to con- 

 tinue along the lines of this established work to 

 insure a life of relative ease and financial 

 prosperity. 



But nothing was farther from my thoughts 

 than the permanent following of the routine busi- 

 ness of the nurseryman. At no stage of the work 

 in California had I given up the expectation of 

 devoting the best years of my life to plant experi- 

 mentation and the development of new races of 

 useful fruits and vegetables, and of beautiful 

 flowers. And now the time seemed to have 

 arrived when the long-deferred project could be 

 put into execution. 



So from the very hour when the nursery busi- 

 ness had come to be fully established, plans were 

 made for giving it up. 



The practical work in the nursery itself had, 

 of course, furnished a most valuable schooling. 

 I had learned the technique of growing seedlings, 

 and grafting, and the general routine of prac- 

 tical plant culture. And this obviously was 

 knowledge of a kind that would be of inestimable 



