CHAPTER III 



THE CREATION OF NEW TREES 



A MONG the thousands of people who visit 

 -^^^- Mr. Burbank's home from year to year 

 are many who come out of idle curiosity, some 

 who are prominent in scientific lines, whom he 

 delights to welcome if they are sincere, some 

 who come prepared to find fault and to over- 

 throw, if possible, what has been built up. 

 One day when there came a man who had 

 been deeply interested in forestry, conversa- 

 tion fell upon the breeding of trees, the pro- 

 duction of new and improved varieties of trees 

 by means of cross-fertilization and selection. 



The visitor had decided views upon the 

 subject, and at once raised the question of the 

 feasibility, even of the possibility, of any suc- 

 cessful experimentation in tree-breeding, such 

 as that Mr. Burbank had carried on in other 

 plant life. In the first place, the experiments 

 would need to be carried over through a series 

 of generations, and, so slow the growth of the 



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