COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF THE WORK 



good for the greatest possible number of 

 people. 



A number of prominent fruit-growers with 

 a keen eye to thrift approached Mr. Burbank 

 one day with a proposition to form a corpora- 

 tion or syndicate for the handling of one of 

 his new plums, a particularly valuable one, in 

 some ways the most important plum he had 

 made. In a most captivating way the promo- 

 ters of the scheme presented its attractions. 

 The gentlemen interested had seen the vast 

 possibilities in the absolute control of the fruit, 

 and Mr. Burbank's share in the profits to accrue 

 was alluringly presented. The project was in 

 no way dishonorable and it was distinctly 

 business-like, but it was in direct opposition 

 to Mr. Burbank's life policy — to place no 

 restrictions upon his productions but to get 

 them running in the channels of the public 

 at the earliest date possible. So the plum 

 syndicate was never formed. 



When Mr. Burbank began placing his new 

 creations on the market, after he had given 

 up the nursery business, he stated in one of 

 his lists: 



"The time, the care and the expense of 



871 



