CHAPTER III 

 THE CARE OF SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS 



IT will give new zest to your work in the gar- 

 den to feel that you are producing new varie- 

 ties of vegetables or fruit or flowers not only 

 different from those of your neighbors, but dif- 

 ferent from anything that ever existed before. It 

 would have seemed paradoxical a few years ago 

 to suggest such creative possibilities, but Mr. Bur- 

 bank has shown the way, and the succeeding chap- 

 ters will relate his methods clearly and explicitly. 



In broad general terms, it may be said that the 

 Burbank method consists of (1) the selection of 

 desired traits and their accentuation through suc- 

 cessive generations, combined with (2) artificial 

 hybridization through which variation is stimu- 

 lated, and through which different racial strains 

 are brought together to produce unique combina- 

 tions. 



The precise way in which such selective breed- 

 ing is carried out will be specifically detailed 

 in connection with our studies of work in the 

 orchard, the small-fruit garden, the vegetable gar- 

 den, the flower garden, and on the lawn. 



But as preliminary to such studies, it will be 

 well to learn just how Mr. Burbank prepares the 

 soil and carries out the tedious but necessary 



[45] 



