198 GARDENING WITH BRAINS -^ 



duced too many small tubers, or had rough skins 

 or an undesirable shape, and so on. 



There were, however, two honorable excep- 

 tions, and these were destined to create the new 

 epoch in the potato world. These tubers were 

 superior to the parent, and superior to any 

 variety then known; they were larger, whiter, 

 more uniform in size, had a better flavor, and 

 proved to be more productive as well as better 

 able to resist disease. They were planted the 

 following spring and became the ancestors of 

 the Burbank potato, of which California alone 

 now grows over seven million bushels a year. 



Burbank himself — such is the usual fate of 

 inventors and discoverers — got only one hundred 

 and fifty dollars for giving the world the best 

 potato it has ever had. He modestly thought it 

 worth five hundred dollars, but the first dealer 

 to whom it was offered declined it curtly and so 

 he was glad to accept one hundred and fifty 

 dollars from another dealer; it was just enough 

 for buying a ticket to California. 



He had "tasted blood"; the results achieved 

 with the potato ball and some other minor 

 successes gave him so much joy that he resolved 

 to become a plant breeder; not, however, in 

 bleak New England, but in our glorious semi- 

 tropical state where nature would be his ally; 

 the state where Australian gum trees reach a 

 height of seventy-five feet in five years; where 

 fuchsias climb to the window sills of the second 



