JlTI.v. 1920 



G I, R A N I X S IN n K E C U T; T U R K 



411 



BoiiiiM), ,111(1 the lato Cecil Rhodes ordered 

 all Mr. Buibank's then new varieties of 

 fruits for his extensive fruit raneh at Cape 

 Town. Several years afterward a eonsign- 

 ment of plunis which grew from those cut- 

 tings was shipi)ed 18,000 miles by steamer 

 and rail from Cape Town to San Francisco, 

 arriving in prime condition. llis fruits 

 have also been introduced into various parts 

 of Europe with great success. 



In the breeding of fruit trees there were 

 so many things to work for; for instance, 

 size, flavor, productiveness, early bearing 

 and early ripening, juiciness, sweetness, 

 ■good-keeping qualities for shipping purposes, 

 hardiness, long life for the trees — I don't 

 suppose I can name them all. Like all great 

 men, Mr. Burbank always has the vision of 

 what he is trying to attain, a sort of mental 

 pattern of what he wants. In addition to 

 all the desirable qualities I have named he 

 has been working to produce pitless prunes 

 and i>luins. After 12 years of unremitting, 

 painstaking, expensive work with as many 

 as 5000 little trees in training at one time, 

 the first pitless prune appeared. He is now 

 working with many varieties of both prunes 

 and plums which have no stone, but in most 

 of them remains a tiny kernel which adds a 

 rich, almond flavor to the fruit. 



I believe none of these have yet been put 

 upon the market, but it is said to be only a 

 question of time before Mr. Burbank will 

 breed the pit out of all his varieties of 

 plums, prunes, and cherries. May he enjoy 

 many years of health for his work. 



Maybe some of you, like myself, have 

 wondered what is the difference between a 

 plum and a prune. Mr. Burbank gives this 

 definition, "Any plum which will dry in 

 the sun without spoiling is a prune." In 

 other words a very sweet plum is a prune, 

 because it is the sugar content which en- 

 ables them to preserve themselves like 

 raisins. 



DEAR me, there is so very much more 

 that could be said about the many 

 varieties of plums and prunes which 

 Mr. Burbank has introduced, but I already 

 foresee my troubles when I begin to try to 

 fit this article to my space. I always did 

 detest cutting and fitting. However, I am 

 going to mention a plum with the flavor of 

 a Bartlett pear. A great fruit man, on be- 

 ing blindfolded and given a taste of this 

 plum sai<l, "It is the finest Bartlett pear I 

 ever tasted." 



One thing which delights me about Mr. 

 Burbank is his way of doing things which 

 scientific men have long declared to be im- 

 possible. He might be said to cut scientific 

 red tape just as such men as Herbert Hoover 

 cut oflScial red tape. As an illustration 

 there is his plumcot, produced by the union 

 of plums and apricots, not a new and dis- 

 tinct variety of an already existing fruit, 

 but a new fruit given to the world. 



Other creations of new species are the 

 primus berry, a union of the raspberry ami 



blackberry, and the phenomenal berry, cre- 

 ated from the California dewberry and the 

 Cuthbort raspbei-ry. 



MAYBE someone is wondering why I 

 have not yet mentioned flowers. I 

 am rather surprised at myself, to tell 

 the truth, but you see that necessary cor- 

 rection started me on trees and then fruits 

 seemed to follow logically. 



Fourteen years ago this summer, on my 

 first visit to California, I was charmed by 

 bowls of wonderful daisies which appeared 

 on the tables of a certain hotel in Santa 

 Barbara. I had always loved the common 

 field daisies in spite of a farm-bred husband 

 who told me I would not love them if I had 

 ever been a small boy and had to fight them 

 as persistent weeds. These daisies in Santa 

 Barbara were enormous, of the purest white 

 with a gold center, full petaled and sym- 

 metrical. Combined with the orange gold 

 of the graceful California poppy they form- 

 ed a beautiful contrast. We were told that 

 the daisy was the Shasta and a Burbank 

 creation. I came home, ordered seed, rais- 

 ed plants, and for years our garden was 

 beautified by the great daisies. Now I find 

 that it took Mr. Burbank eight years to per- 

 fect the Shasta daisy. It is a triumph in- 

 deed, for it will flourish in all soils and all 

 climates but will not self-sow, has flowers 

 three to six inches in diameter on long, 

 strong stems, and will keep fresh in water 

 from ten days to two weeks. Since this 

 time Mr. Burbank has added a double daisy 

 to this which makes it a rival of the chry- 

 santhemum, as the daisy will bloom all sum- 

 mer. Another, newer still, 'is a fringed 

 daisy. 



Just to mention a few more of his flower 

 triumphs, Mr. Burbank has added variety to 

 the golden California poppy by producing 

 it in crimson and other colors; he has taught 

 the gladiolus to bloom around the entire 

 stem instead of the old way, on one side; he 

 has driven the disagreeable odor from a 

 dahlia and given it the fragrance of a mag- 

 nolia blossom; he has increased the size of 

 a poppy until it measures ten inches in 

 diameter; has bred an amaryllis to nearly a 

 foot across. He has produ' ed a calla ten to 

 twelve inches in breadth on a six-foot stem, 

 and then has bred others down to tiny 

 things less than two inches in diameter. 



WILL you pardon me if I am personal 

 and just a bit boastful for a minute? 

 I am quite successful with delphin- 

 iums (hardy larkspurs), or perhaps it is 

 merely that our heavy clay soil is especially 

 adapted to them. At any rate, in June, I 

 always have a large bed of them, great, 

 strong plants, covered with stately spikes 

 of bloom. They are plants which I have 

 raised myself, and honestly, you never saw 

 finer larkspurs. When they are in full 

 bloom the bed is like a mass of blue flame, 

 ('.\(|iiisite shades of blue. They have only 

 {Continued on Page 440) 



