204 LUTHER BURBANK 



could have induced him to have taken it up 

 as a life work at this time when he was abso- 

 lutely free to travel, see the world and enjoy 

 himself. 



Previous to this time, the Gold Ridge farm 

 near Sebastopol had been purchased, from which 

 the nursery stock was now removed and the 

 ground covered by plants for experimental pur- 

 poses. Many of these plants had already been 

 experimented upon by him in definite lines for 

 years. The work was amplified and extended, as 

 time and space was now afforded, and plants 

 from all parts of the world secured for still 

 further development. Through many hundred 

 faithful foreign collectors he had often obtained 

 some wild plant whose economic possibilities had 

 never been apprehended, and which might, per- 

 haps, have remained unknown for ages. These 

 plants, when brought under culture and careful 

 observation, especially for promising variations, 

 and by combinations with other wild or cultivated 

 plants from other countries, have produced new 

 plants possessing qualities both of enormous 

 economic and scientific value, opening new fields 

 for still further development in various useful 

 directions. Often a certain experiment had been 

 carried on to a point where it needed some quality 

 more than any plant imder cultivation had the 



