112 City Homes on Country Lanes 



now at the dawn of a new and infinitely finer day. Not 

 broad acres, but little lands ; not speculation, but home 

 building; not the grudging labor of hirelings, but the 

 loving labor of self-employing proprietors — these are 

 the signs and tokens of the new day. Of that day 

 Luther Burbank is the prophet beyond anything we 

 have realized heretofore. It is not merely the dollars- 

 and-cents side of his work, though that is important. 

 Surely, it is important to improve the quality of fruit, 

 to double or treble the productive capacity of a plant, 

 to bring a vegetable into the market four or six weeks 

 ahead of its season, and thus to increase the earning 

 capacity of the man who lives from the soil. But even 

 more important is the spirit which he puts into his 

 work, and which in time must be diffused among the 

 masses engaged in the tilling of the land. It is the 

 spirit which calls for better and ever better things, 

 which tends constantly and strongly toward higher 

 standards of labor and of living, and puts science in 

 place of chance. This is the spirit which is to give us 

 the New Earth. 



I asked Mr. Burbank what of his own creations were 

 particularly adapted to serve as a cash surplus crop 

 for the home gardener. He mentioned his new tomato, 

 which anticipates the usual season by four to six weeks 

 as something that will be particularly profitable. He 

 recurred again to the "Quality" asparagus, which is so 

 great a favorite upon his own tabic. The Burbank 

 Giant Crimson rhubarb was also mentioned for winter 

 and early spring. Then he sent out for some specimens 

 of his improved "balloon" raspberry, averaging about 

 three inches around. They were so big I could hardly 



