LUTHER BURBANK 



guides him in selecting among thousands of in- 

 dividual plums or cherries or grapes or apples or 

 berries the one individual specimen that has the 

 most delectable flavor or that shows a minute 

 modification of flavor in the direction in which 

 he is endeavoring to modify the variety. 



This almost preternatural endowment of special 

 senses is supplemented by a knowledge of the co- 

 ordination of parts say between the stem or leaf 

 and the future fruit of a plant that is so pene- 

 trating and mystifying as to seem intuitional and 

 to suggest occult powers of divination. 



As an instance, you may see Mr. Burbank strid- 

 ing along a row of, let us say, plum seedlings com- 

 prising some thousands of plants perhaps a foot 

 high. He seems to inspect the little trees but 

 casually, except that now and again he pauses for 

 a moment to indicate with a motion of his hand 

 that this or that plant has particularly attracted 

 his attention. A helper, or more likely two 

 helpers for one can scarcely keep up with the 

 energetic leader will be at hand to note the sig- 

 nals ; and a bit of white cloth will be tied about 

 each successively selected seedling ; or two pieces 

 of cloth, or even three, in case an individual has 

 seemed to show quite exceptional promise. 



And with that, one stage of the work of selec- 

 tion is finished. Perhaps ten thousand seedlings 

 have been passed in review in a half-hour, and 

 conceivably fifty or a hundred have been selected 

 for preservation. These have shown to the keen 

 scrutiny gf the plant experimenter such qualities 



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