LUTHER BURBANK 



plants of the blackberry and raspberry were thus 

 consumed. 



Many of these vines bore excellent fruit, but 

 it was impractical to sell them or give them away, 

 because some of the recipients would have been 

 sure sooner or later to announce their fruits as 

 " Luther Burbank's finest creation," to the dis- 

 advantage of the purchaser and to the detriment 

 of Mr. Burbank's reputation. The plant devel- 

 oper himself never puts a new variety on the 

 market unless he believes it to be superior to any 

 existing variety in at last one respect, and equal 

 to any other in all respects. His reputation has 

 been made by following this rule, and he cannot 

 afford to jeopardize it by allowing any new va- 

 riety that does not conform to this test to be put 

 on the market. 



Hence the necessity for the not infrequent 

 " ten-thousand-dollar bonfires" through which the 

 discarded plants that have entered into his experi- 

 ments are destroyed. 

 ' '"*? * 



When we learn that the original Paradox berry 



vine was the only individual saved among forty 

 thousand hybrids, our first thought is likely to 

 be that it is an almost hopeless task for the ama- 

 teur to attempt to develop a new variety of small 

 fruit. 



But it should be explained that the standard 

 of the amateur need not be so high as the standard 

 that Mr. Burbank establishes. Among the forty 

 thousand discarded vines there were doubtless 

 large numbers producing new varieties of berries 



[86] 



