SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS 



Fortunately, the method of sprouting seeds is 

 practically the same for the most diverse kinds. 

 Mr. Burbank has seeds sent him from all parts of 

 the world. He applies the same method of germi- 

 nation to them all, and he has so perfected the 

 method that he confidently expects to secure at 

 least ninety-nine seedlings from every hundred 

 seeds of whatever kind. 



The importance of being able to germinate seeds 

 of rare exotics with some such degree of certainty 

 is obvious. It is no less important to make sure 

 of the germination of seeds produced by difficult 

 hybridizing experiments. For example, Mr. Bur- 

 bank worked for twenty-five years unsuccessfully 

 in attempting to hybridize two species of night- 

 shade, and finally he produced a single berry. 

 The solicitude with which he guarded the seeds 

 of that berry may well be imagined. From one 

 of those seeds sprang the plant that became the 

 progenitor of the entire race of sunberries. 



And this is only one instance of many in which 

 all the potentialities of a new race of fruits or 

 flowers or vegetables were represented in a little 

 cluster of seeds that by the slightest mismanage- 

 ment might be destroyed, thus bringing to naught 

 a long series of experiments. 



Bearing this in mind, we shall not wonder that 

 Mr. Burbank keeps his unique collection of seeds 

 constantly under his own eye, or that he person- 

 ally supervises the planting of these seeds in the 

 early springtime. 



[47] 



