LUTHER BURBANK 



The destruction of our native chestnuts has been 

 justly regarded as a calamity. It is a consolation 

 to know that the hybrid chestnut will probably be 

 available to restock the devastated regions with 

 a tree that will more than compensate for the loss 

 of the native chestnut as a producer of nuts. 



Doubtless it will be possible also to produce 

 hybrid strains that will combine immunity to the 

 pest with capacity for lumber production, at least 

 equal to that of our native tree, and perhaps 

 vastly superior. 



THE PEODUCTION OF GIANTS 



The warrant for the latter supposition is found 

 in a line of experiments conducted by Mr. Burbank 

 with another tribe of nut-bearers; namely, the 

 walnuts. His success in producing extraordinary 

 giants of this tribe was no less striking, and in 

 some respects even more important, than his feat 

 of producing the dwarfed chestnuts. The story 

 of this accomplishment must be told in detail, as 

 it furnishes an insight into what ultimately may 

 prove the most important, from an economic 

 standpoint, of all Mr. Burbank 's discoveries. 



The initial experiments in this case also were 

 made many years ago, so that successive genera- 

 tions of the remarkable trees in question are in 

 evidence. These trees are of two distinct tribes. 

 One of them originated through hybridizing the 

 indigenous California black walnut with the Per- 

 sian walnut (commonly called English walnut), 



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