LWT&ER BURBANK 



Lnth&r Surbank was a rather frail child, though 

 not without abounding physical vigor. He was 

 of a thoughtful, studious bent of mind, with an 

 inherent love of flowers and plants that mani- 

 fested itself at a very early age, and with an 

 almost equally striking fondness for mechanics. 

 It is recorded that one of his most fondly prized 

 toys in infancy was a specimen of spineless cactus, 

 and that the possession of a flower would almost 

 always quiet him and give him, seemingly, greater 

 pleasure than he derived from any other kind of 

 toy. 



His inventive bent manifested itself very early, 

 and led him to the devising of many mechanisms, 

 including a home-made steam engine, which he 

 used to propel a boat, producing thus a prototype 

 of the modern motor boat half a century before 

 that craft gained popularity. 



The most conspicuous application of young 

 Burbank's mechanical genius, however, was made 

 in a factory where he went to work just as he 

 was verging on maturity. This was a labor- 

 saving device of such usefulness that it enabled 

 him to multiply the efficiency of his work tenfold, 

 so that his earnings, which at first had amounted 

 to only fifty cents a day, quickly mounted to a 

 really respectable figure. He might have re- 

 mained indefinitely in the factory, with the assur- 

 ance of a good salary ; but the confinement proved 

 unhealthful, and he soon returned to the fields, 

 never thereafter to leave them. 



[4] 



