LUTHER BURBANK 



Japan and Europe, and blended them with those 

 of American plums, producing extraordinary new 

 varieties; and the strains of apples, pears, 

 peaches, quinces, and cherries, from the most 

 widely separated geographical regions, have been 

 similarly blended. 



CEEATING NEW FRUITS 



One time when Mr. Burbank was a young man 

 he was browsing in a San Francisco library, and 

 came across an account, written by a wandering 

 sailor, of a remarkable red plum found in Japan, 

 and spoken of by the sailor as the " Blood Plum 

 of Satsuma." Mr. Burbank at once sent to Japan 

 for this plum, among others, and he ultimately 

 secured a specimen, which became the progenitor 

 of all the different varieties of red-fleshed plums 

 that are now to be found anywhere in America. 

 Some of the other Japanese plums, and the 

 Chinese plum as well, when blended with Amer- 

 ican and European plums, were equally notable 

 as producers of new and remarkable varieties. 



Of the sixty odd new varieties of plums and 

 prunes that Mr. Burbank has introduced, no fewer 

 than thirty-eight bear strains of the Asiatic 

 plums, fourteen were developed from American 

 stock, and thirteen from European species. But 

 the various strains have been intimately blended. 

 A single complex hybrid may reveal the brilliant 

 color and delicious fragrance of the Chinese plum, 

 the red fruit pulp and large size of the Japanese, 



[72] 



