FOUR BURBANK PLUMS, 



AND 



How THEY WERE MADE 



METHODS WHICH BROUGHT UNPRECEDENTED 

 SUCCESS 



NATURE tells every secret once," says Em- 

 erson. 

 And this, after all, is only the poet's 

 way of saying that there must always be someone 

 who is first to listen to the secrets that Nature is 

 telling every hour. 



Once in my life, if I mistake not, I was privi- 

 leged to listen to a secret that others had refused 

 to hear or had heard but vaguely. Doubtless it 

 had been whispered or half-whispered in many 

 another ear. But in my ear Nature chanted this 

 secret perpetually, insistently, and in compelling 

 measure. 



She told and re-told it to me until I had no 

 choice but to listen. 

 The secret was this: 



New species of animals and plants originate 

 through the hybridization of old species. 



[VOLUME V CHAPTER II] 



