294 LUTHER BURBANK 



scale to giants at the other. A corresponding 

 gradation may be shown in regard to other quali- 

 ties, such as color of flower, character of leaf, 

 flavor of fruit, productivity, resistance to disease 

 in a word as to all the varied properties that 

 go to make up the personality if the expression 

 be permitted of a plant. 



Many of these things are so well recognized 

 to-day that they seem mere matters of fact, quite 

 beyond challenge. But they were matters of 

 very ardent challenge in the day when they were 

 first being demonstrated in the experiment 

 gardens at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. 



When the first official announcements of this 

 work were sent forth, through publication of the 

 brochure called "New Creations in Fruits and 

 Flowers" in June, 1893, the measure of the 

 novelty of the announcements may be gauged 

 by the popular interest aroused on one hand and 

 by the outspoken incredulity of the botanical and 

 horticultural worlds in general, save only the in- 

 dividual experts who had previously visited my 

 grounds and seen for themselves the truth of the 

 matters that were now given publicity. 



It will serve to give an outline of the prog- 

 ress of the work if we briefly summarize the con- 

 tents of the successive catalogues in which the 

 new developments were publicly reported. 



