NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



But a singular situation is suggested by the 

 possibilities of this adaptation. One of the 

 leading fruit-growers of northern California, 

 an ardent admirer of Mr. Burbank and largely 

 interested in the production of some of his 

 new fruits," makes the point that, in spite of 

 the great work Mr. Burbank has done and is 

 doing, for the development of fruit-culture in 

 California, the supremacy of California as a 

 fruit - producing state is eventually to be 

 threatened, because of the fact that Mr. Bur- 

 bank is adapting so many of the fruits, now 

 grown in California extensively, to other 

 regions of the country. Thus, if he makes a 

 pear so hardy that it will gi'ow in a climate 

 where pears have never been grown success- 

 fully before, or in like manner hardens a 

 peach, a prune, an apricot, a plum or a cherry, 

 the fruit-growers of that region will be swift 

 to adopt the new fruit. They will at once be 

 given an immediate market; their customers 

 will be delighted that they can get the choicest 

 fruits at their very doors and filled with pride 

 that their climate is no longer to be pro- 

 nounced inimical to fruit-raising; while a new 

 and profitable industry springs into life. 



204 



