Ig BURBANK'S WORK 205 



petuation and multiplication, and which, if we 

 do not destroy them now, will clutter the earth 

 with inferiority or with mediocrity." 



These costly bonfires thus throw light on 

 Luther Burbank's moral character. He needs 

 money — lots of money — for his many costly 

 experiments; but he is not willing to make 

 any of it by selling products that fall short of 

 his highest ideals and that might disappoint 

 those who expect only the best from him. 

 Imagine how such a man must suffer from the 

 dishonest practices of some scoundrelly seeds- 

 men and nurserymen who attach his name to 

 inferior plants, seeds, and trees that have no 

 Burbank blood in them at all. There is real 

 pathos in the short paragraph on this subject 

 printed in his 1920 catalogue of new creations in 

 seeds: "A good name is a treasure for unprin- 

 cipled dealers to trade on; tons of seeds and 

 thousands of trees and plants of uncertain value 

 are sold over my name throughout America 

 each season. There is no redress." 



No redress for the harm done to his name by 

 these scoundrels ! A few years ago I was visiting 

 a famous prima donna whose husband had 

 large and beautiful gardens and nurseries. 

 When I asked the head gardener if he had any 

 of the Burbank novelties he passionately re- 

 sponded that he had none; he had "tried some, 

 but had found them worthless." 



"Did you buy them from Burbank himself?" 



14 



