LUTHER BURBANK 



no value are removed and cions from new seed- 

 lings are put in their place. 



Most of the trees have borne from ten to 

 twenty sets of grafts. 



Details given in other chapters will enable the 

 reader to follow in imagination the process of 

 blending and selection through which, on the av- 

 erage, year by year a better and better combina- 

 tion of qualities was effected among my plum 

 proteges. 



Almost as a matter of course, there ultimately 

 appeared individuals that far surpassed most of 

 the earlier hybrids in one or many desired 

 qualities. 



THE QUARTETTE OF "BEST" PLUMS 



And in the course of years there were found 

 at least, three new varieties, all of the most com- 

 plex ancestry, that excelled any of their forerun- 

 ners with the single exception of the Wickson. 



The three new claimants, which stand as the 

 finest products of plum development up to date, 

 have been named the Santa Rosa, the Formosa, 

 and Beauty. 



These with the Wickson may be listed as un- 

 qualifiedly the best products of the experiments 

 in plum hybridization up to date a quartette of 

 plums of matchless quality. 



It must be understood, however, that there are 



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