THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM. 27 



spines, those needles which formerly covered it and rendered 

 it so difficult to handle. What has been done with the cactus 

 is the adumbration and prophecy of what is, one might almost 

 say, becoming general in the realm of agriculture. Already the 

 seedless apple and the pitless plum and the stingless bee have 

 been attained. Fruits have been developed for which a name 

 had to be invented the tangelo, for instance, which Adam 

 did not find in all his rounds in the Garden of Eden, and which 

 nature never produced till a wizard of agriculture, Webber, 

 waved his wand over the fruit trees of his farm and bid the 

 thing appear. Burbank has more than doubled the size of 

 various fruits and flowers and esculent roots, and within a 

 considerable range finds himself able to change the colors 

 of nature almost at will. Under his manipulation the white 

 blackberry is now an accomplished fact, and he tells us that 

 he will give us a blue rose as soon as he can spare the time 

 to*coax it into being. And we must remember that it is only 

 recently that he has been given the means and assistance that 

 the dignity of his work deserves. It may not be said that 

 Burbank is at the beginning of his career, but it is certain that 

 the work which he has pointed out the way to perform will be 

 carried forward by a great number of men, and that agriculture 

 is but entering upon an era of development which will be as 

 surprising as it will be profitable. Already the agricultural col- 

 leges of this and foreign lands and our own and foreign Agri- 

 cultural Departments through their various experiment sta- 

 tions are working along these and other original lines, and the 

 wonderful, the helpful and the profitable are being brought to 

 light every day. The pests of his plants and the diseases of his 

 animals which were once the terror of the farmer are now 

 so subject to control and cure as to give him little more than 



