LUTHER BURBANK 



type of fruit that will withstand the rigorous 

 climate and conditions of the cold northern plains 

 of Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. What 

 has just been said suggests that the fruit is not 

 truly a cherry, yet the botanists seem to feel that 

 it occupies an intermediate station, and is more 

 closely related to the cherry than any other fruit. 



Such being the case, it should be possible to 

 hybridize this dwarf hardy species with the 

 cherry. The tree has the further valuable prop- 

 erty of being able to grow on dry, barren sands. A 

 hybrid cherry having this characteristic from one 

 of its ancestors might be expected to constitute a 

 fruit that would grow in regions too arid for the 

 existing cherry as well as in regions that are too 

 cold. And this is but one of several lines of pos- 

 sible development that invite the plant experi- 

 menter who will give attention to this type of 

 cherry. 



To suggest one other line of improvement, it 

 is sufficient to call attention to the familiar fact 

 that the cherry has a very brief season. The 

 Burbank cherry fruits two or three weeks earlier 

 than others, as we have learned in another chap- 

 ter. But even so the total period during which 

 cherries of different varieties are in fruit is very 

 limited. One hears reports of an exceptional 

 cherry tree that fruits a second time in the au- 



[102] 



