220 LUTHER BURBANK 



finally the twigs which we have marked with 

 strings will reward us with their ripened fruit. 



There is an interesting legend of the French 

 girls who used to take apple boughs in blossom 

 and shake the pollen over the apple flowers of 

 another tree, a legend of the wonderful variation 

 in the apples which they secured. 



And here and there in our work we shall see 

 a few exceptions to the general rule, which 

 seem to prove that the French legend perhaps 

 was founded on fact. 



These exceptions, which will form the basis of 

 an interesting series of experiments for us later, 

 need have no bearing on our present cherry 

 work. 



For, as a matter of practical fact, we shall 

 find no outward evidence of our work. The 

 meat of the five hundred cherries which we have 

 crossed, we can safely assume, will taste the 

 same, and be the same, as though we had let the 

 bees attend to pollination; the cherries that re- 

 sult will not be different in flavor or appearance 

 from the other cherries on the tree. 



But inside the stony seed of each of those 

 cherries we shall find an indelible living record 

 of what has been done. 



So, disregarding the fruit, we save our five 

 hundred cherry seeds and plant them in a shal- 



