206 GARDENING WITH BRAINS ^ 



I asked, and he answered: "No; got 'em in 

 New York." 



He had been fooled; he knew nothing about 

 Burbank's moral character and high business 

 principles; yet here he was, abusively biased 

 against one of the most honest men that ever 

 lived, because somebody else had cheated him! 



Another class of persons who speak dis- 

 respectfully of Burbank are those who expected 

 so much of his seeds that they thought these 

 must do wonders under any and all conditions. 

 Now the great plant breeder has achieved many 

 surprising feats resembling miracles, but he has 

 not been able to do away with the laws of nature. 

 If you buy a fifty-cent packet of the choicest 

 pansy seeds and plant them in a sunny bed with 

 poor soil and no water they will produce flowers 

 smaller and less beautiful than those you can 

 get from a five-cent packet of ordinary pansies 

 in rich soil with afternoon shade and plenty of 

 moisture. 



One day in September I saw a Burbank 

 Shirley poppy plant grown from a seed that 

 had been accidentally dropped on the lawn near 

 my poppy bed. It had been mowed down 

 repeatedly, and when it finally bloomed it was 

 six inches high and the flower no larger than a 

 nickel. Two feet away, in the cultivated bed, 

 Burbank poppies from the same seed packet 

 grew to a height of three feet, with flowers five 

 or six inches across. 



