200 LUTHER BURBANK 



plowing with gang plows in the winter, or 

 working with threshing crews in the summer. 

 Luther's physical strength was not sufficient to 

 take either of these positions. With little avail- 

 able means, in a strange land, far from home 

 and friends, he met with hardships from which 

 his sensitive nature recoiled, and which would 

 have turned a less determined soul from its pur- 

 pose. Letters written at this time to mother and 

 sister in the old New England home contain 

 no details of these hardships but are overflowing 

 with enthusiastic descriptions of the beautiful 

 scenery, flowers, trees, and birds, of the pure air 

 and blue sky of the new land. 



Seeking work, he let no opportunity pass by, 

 often accepting that which was far beyond his 

 strength; and doing all sorts of odd jobs. Once 

 hearing that help was wanted on a building then 

 in construction, he applied and was promised 

 work if he would furnish his own shingling 

 hatchet. He spent his little remaining money 

 for one and reported for work the next morning 

 only to meet with another disappointment, as the 

 job had been given to another. Then he went 

 to Petaluma where he worked through the winter 

 and spring of 1876 in the nursery of W. H. Pep- 

 per, which was established in 1852, one of the 

 first in California. Here, occupying a room over 



