SANTA ROSA 269 



topol place, with its eighteen acres, was not pur- 

 chased for use as a practical nursery, but solely as 

 an experiment garden. 



With the development of the Sebastopol place, 

 a new phase of life work began. 



Thenceforward my time was divided between 

 the experiment gardens at Santa Rosa and that 

 at Sebastopol, and upon one place or the other 

 nearly all my experiments in plant development 

 were to be performed. 



An interest in the nursery business was re- 

 tained for two or three years more, to furnish 

 money to carry out the initial stages of the new 

 experiments; for of course it could not be ex- 

 pected that new varieties of fruits and flowers 

 would spring into existence in a single season. 

 Nor could immediate purchasers be found for 

 them if they had been thus magically produced. 

 But from the time when the place at Sebastopol 

 was purchased it was determined that my ener- 

 gies were to be wholly devoted to the work of 

 plant development — the work that had been 

 projected, and at which a beginning had been 

 made in New England, and the hope of continu- 

 ing which had been the incentive to persistent 

 efforts during the intervening years. 



