LUTHER BURBANK 



when I was renouncing the calling of the regular 

 nurseryman and determining to devote my entire 

 attention to the development of new races of 

 plants. 



The capacity for development shown by this 

 little company of seedlings was nothing less than 

 phenomenal. 



The change of climate from Japan to Califor- 

 nia was, seemingly, of all things precisely what 

 they needed if they were to put forth their best 

 endeavors to better themselves, and in bettering 

 themselves to confer benefits upon humanity. 



Perhaps it is not too much to say that the lit- 

 tle company of twelve plum seedlings that came 

 to me with my first successful shipment in 1885 

 constituted, from an economic standpoint, the 

 most important importation of fruit-bearers ever 

 made at a single time into America. For the im- 

 mediate bud sisters of two of these seedlings con- 

 stitute to-day varieties of plum that are recog- 

 nized as standards everywhere; and from the 

 progeny of these and the others were developed 

 plums of such size and quality as not alone to 

 give this fruit an altogether new standing in the 

 markets of America, but fairly to revolutionize 

 the plum industry in such far away regions as 

 Africa, Australia, New Zealand, our own south- 

 ern states, and the states of the Pacific Coast. 



[10] 



