LUTHER BURBANK 



grafts from other seedlings put in their place for 

 further tests. 



The usefulness of a tree as __e basis of further 

 experiments is not finished by any means when it 

 has once been covered by grafted cions. The same 

 process may be practised over and over. 



Doubtless no other observation made by the 

 average amateur visitor is matter for greater sur- 

 prise than this utilization of single trees for the 

 carrying out of vast numbers of experiments. The 

 utility of the method, in the saving of both land 

 and the experimenter's time, is altogether obvious 

 once attention is called to it. Yet relatively few, 

 even among professional fruit growers, have hith- 

 erto gauged the possibilities of the method. 



Of course the average visitor who inspects my 

 gardens has no thought of becoming an experi- 

 menter on a large scale, and hence would not have 

 occasion to practise multiple grafting and regraf t- 

 ing on any such scale as that employed at Santa 

 Rosa and Sebastopol. But I call particular atten- 

 tion to this matter of fruit-tree grafting, because 

 there is a lesson in it not merely for the profes- 

 sional fruit grower but for tens of thousands of 

 persons scattered across the length and breadth of 

 the country who have in their gardens a few fruit 

 trees, at present of no apparent value, that might 

 be made to bear in abundance. 



[38] 



