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BURBANK'S WORK 



201 



experiments on hand, and I am raising plants for im- 

 provement from my collectors all over the world. Just 

 now I find my most interesting plants are collected by 

 the Guanaco Indians under the guidance of missionaries 

 in Paraguay, which has a climate somewhat similar to 

 ours, and the plant life there is less known to the civilized 

 world than that of any other part of the globe. I am 

 also receiving seeds of many new wild plants from 

 Chile, Patagonia, Peru, Central America, Mexico, 

 western China, the Himalayas, Alaska, Australia, 

 Africa, New Zealand, and other countries. Not one in 

 fifty of the plants raised from these wild native seeds is 

 worthy of special care, but some of them are of priceless 

 value in the production of new varieties of fruits, grains, 

 grasses, trees, and flowers. 



During the war my work was mostly for grains. The 

 "quality" wheat which I sent out has 15 per cent of 

 gluten — I think the highest in this important element 

 of any wheat ever produced. It is a white wheat, in 

 some respects much like the Marquis which is so exten- 

 sively grown in British America, and grows everywhere 

 from Saskatchewan, in the north, to Van Diemen's 

 Land, in the south, ripening its crop much before other 

 varieties, so that it escapes rust and many other diseases 

 which shorten the crop of wheat in the United States. 

 It took first prize over all other wheats in Canada last 

 season — 96 per cent perfect of a possible 100. 



I have also a great number of experiments with rye, 

 oats, barley, and some new grains; will have another 

 new tomato to offer soon, and plums, grapes, chestnuts, 

 berries, forest and shade trees, and flowers and fruits 

 without number. 



An interesting glimpse of the activities of a 

 man of seventy-two! How can he do it? Of 

 course he has plenty of helpers, but every 



