THE MAN AND HIS WORK 



all obstacles and within four or five years after 

 coming to California Mr. Burbank found himself 

 in possession of a commercial nursery that netted 

 him an annual income of about ten thousand 

 dollars. His orchard products were mostly of 

 standard varieties, but he had applied to them 

 from the outset the selective skill that was to 

 make him famous, and he had gained for his seed- 

 lings a reputation for reliability that caused them 

 to be bought by would-be orchardists throughout 

 the fruit-growing region. 



Such commercial success as this was gratifying, 

 but Mr. Burbank regarded it as only a stepping- 

 stone. Even while his chief time was necessarily 

 given over to the practical duties of the nursery- 

 man, he found opportunity to make numberless 

 experiments in hybridization and selection among 

 the various plants in his nursery ; and so soon as 

 his financial affairs gave the least promise of se- 

 curity, he had cast about for a piece of land on 

 which he could establish an experiment garden 

 to be devoted exclusively to the production of new 

 and improved varieties of plants of every type. 



He found four acres that could be made avail- 

 able by proper drainage and fertilization, in the 

 town of Santa Rosa, and there he established the 

 garden that was soon to be famous as the seat of 

 the most remarkable series of plant experiments 

 that have been carried out in our generation. A 

 little later he purchased a tract of eighteen acres 

 at Sebastopol, seven miles away, where the topo- 

 graphical and climatic conditions were slightly 



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