PACIFIC STATES FLORAL CONGRESS. 



HOW TO PRODUCE NEW FLOWERS. 



BY LUTHER BURBANK. 



Who does not love flowers ? For whom will not flowers make more 

 sunshine ? Flowers from the hands of a loved one, what sweeter, sun- 

 nier gift can be thought of ? Flowers speak to us of poetry, music, life, 

 and love. Flowers always make people better, happier, and more hope- 

 ful. They are sunshine, food, and medicine to the soul, and can never 

 be taken in overdoses. 



In this paper I shall not try to burden you with any dry, scientific 

 facts, and if any of them should appear, you may rest assured that it 

 is because, in the words of Mark Twain, "they simply stew out of me 

 unconsciously." I wish to tell you simply just how to proceed in the 

 production of new types of flowers and the improvement of the older 

 and well-known ones. The chief work of the botanists of yesterday was 

 the study and classification of dried, shriveled plant mummies, whose 

 souls had fled, rather than the living, plastic forms. They thought their 

 classified species were more fixed and unchangeable than anything in 

 heaven or earth that we can now imagine. We have learned that they 

 are as plastic in our hands as clay in the hands of the potter, or color 

 on the artist's canvas, and can readily be moulded into more beautiful 

 forms and colors than any painter or sculptor can ever hope to bring 

 forth. There is not one weed or flower, wild or domesticated, which 

 will not, sooner or later, respond liberally to good cultivation and per- 

 sistent selection. The changes which can be wrought with the more 

 plastic forms are simply marvelous, and only those who have seen 

 this regeneration transpiring before their very eyes can ever be fully 

 convinced. 



It takes time, skill, and patience, of course. What valuable work is 

 accomplished otherwise? These profound changes in plants go on 

 quietly, as do all the great, beneficent, upbuilding forces of nature. 

 No powder is burned, no big guns brought forth, no martial music 

 is heard, for they are destroyers, not producers. The beneficent forces 

 of nature are like truth itself, quiet, but persistent and all-powerful. 



What occupation can be more delightful than adopting the most 

 promising individual from among a race of vile, neglected orphan weeds 

 with settled hoodlum tendencies, downtrodden and despised by all, and 

 gradually lifting it by breeding and education to a higher sphere; to 

 3 e it gradually change its sprawling habits, its coarse, ill-smelling foli- 

 age its insignificant blossoms of dull color, to an upright plant with 

 handsome, glossy, fragrant leaves, blossoms of every hue, and with a 

 fragrance as pure and lasting as could be desired? In the more p 



