LUTHER BURBANK 



It chanced that a well known judge, who is 

 also a horticultural enthusiast, who had been very 

 much interested in my work, was visiting me at 

 a time when I was sorting out plum trees from 

 among a lot of several thousand seedlings about 

 a foot high. I had a man carrying them away as 

 fast as selected. They were thrown in three piles, 

 the first containing those I had declared to be the 

 best ones for continuing the test; the second pile 

 containing those I thought possibly worth trying; 

 and the third pile those that seemed to me no good 

 at all. 



The judge watched me for a few minutes and 

 then said: "You are picking them altogether too 

 fast. You cannot possibly tell like that which are 

 good and which are not." 



I replied : "Wait and see, or test the matter for 

 yourself if you wish." 



"Very well," said my visitor, "I will do so." 



And therewith he selected a few seedlings from 

 each of the piles and took them home with him to 

 graft on trees of his own. 



Of course it was necessary to wait two or three 

 years for results. But when the time came, the 

 judge very cheerfully admitted that I had been 

 quite right all along the line. The cions from 

 my discarded pile bore fruit that was almost 

 worthless; those from the intermediate pile gave 



[280] 



