LUTHER BURBANK 



geographical territories were to be assembled, 

 combined, sifted, and selected to produce fruit 

 having the stability, novelty, variety, piquancy, 

 hardiness, beauty and shipping qualities, and 

 adaptability to new conditions and uses of the 

 races that had left their imprint in varying meas- 

 ure on the ancestral stocks. 



Viewing the work in retrospect, I assuredly 

 have no cause to regret that it was undertaken, 

 yet it has been a most laborious task. 



Doubtless the time expended on the plum has 

 been at least as great as that devoted to any other 

 single line of my investigations. The labor, es- 

 pecially in grafting, budding, testing, and select- 

 ing, has probably been greater than that devoted 

 to any other plant origination, with the possible 

 exception of the spineless cactus. 



Roughly speaking, I might perhaps say that 

 the plum experiments represent, first and last, 

 something about one-tenth of the total expendi- 

 ture for my experimental work. 



In importance, up to the present time, judged 

 by results, the work with the plum may repre- 

 sent perhaps one-sixth of all my work; in extent 

 and variety, perhaps one-tenth of the total. In 

 commercial value, up to the present, perhaps the 

 plums may be credited with one- third; but they 

 will rank by no means so high when the final 



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