NEW ENGLAND 241 



as to its tendency to variation. Where I had 

 casually noticed before that individual flowers 

 of a species differed in details as to form or color 

 or productivity, accurate notes were now made 

 of such variations and the query was raised as to 

 whether they gave suggestion of the possibility 

 of developing new races under cultivation. 



Some of the early experiments were full of 

 interest, and the knowledge gained through 

 making them laid the foundation for later suc- 

 cesses in plant development. But I had not 

 proceeded far before it seemed clear that such 

 experiments as were contemplated could not be 

 carried out to best advantage in the climate of 

 New England. My thoughts turned to Califor- 

 nia, where two of my half brothers had gone 

 many years before. What was reported of the 

 climate of the Pacific Coast region suggested 

 this as the location where such experiments as 

 were planned might best be carried out. 



And when the first conspicuous success in the 

 development of a new race of plants had been 

 achieved, through the production of the Bur- 

 bank potato — with the story of which the reader 

 is already familiar — I determined at all hazards 

 to move to California. With the taking of the 

 practical steps that followed that determination, 

 in the year 1875, a new epoch of my life began. 



