LUTHER BURBANK, THE MAN 



cheapen the process of manufacturing a 

 plow. 



But there came a day he never forgot, a red- 

 letter day in his calendar. He had left the 

 factory and had begun market -gardening and 

 seed-raising in a small way. It was far more to 

 his taste and in direct line with the future. 

 He had noticed that there were a good many 

 variations in the green tops of some potatoes 

 he was raising, and that in this particular lot 

 there was but one which bore a seed -ball. He 

 had already begun a close study of the charac- 

 teristics of plants, and he at once reasoned 

 that if this seed -ball came upon but one of all 

 the varying plants, its product, if it should be 

 planted, should show still greater variation. So 

 he watched this seed -ball with unusual care. 

 One day, to his despair, he found that the seed- 

 ball was missing. He was about to give up 

 the whole matter when it occurred to him he 

 would make a search upon the ground. He 

 found the seed -ball at last, where it had been 

 knocked off probably by some wandering dog 

 rushing through the garden. 



From it came the Burbank potato, which 

 comparatively few people associate with Luther 



9 



