LUTHER BURBANK 



unfulfilled possibilities of future development 

 among the hybrids of my plum orchard. Selection 

 has gone on year after year until the plums that 

 remain are all of complex ancestry and of fine 

 individual quality. New crossings between the 

 almost numberless varieties, or even new seedlings 

 without further crossing, may result any year in 

 producing a better plum than any hitherto pro- 

 duced. Indeed, this is to be expected, for in a 

 sense the work is only begun. 



Even by hastening the time of fruiting through 

 grafting seedlings on small limbs in the way 

 already detailed, it is impossible to test any given 

 seedling as to its fruit possibilities in less than 

 two or three years. So there are only twelve to 

 fifteen generations at most between my first 

 hybrids and the seedlings of the present year. 



It is not to be supposed that all the possibilities 

 of the multiple ancestry will be realized in any 

 given individual within that comparatively short 

 number of generations. 



So, notwithstanding the notable results of the 

 experiments up to the present, I have every ex- 

 pectation that the real greatness of my plum 

 colony is yet to be revealed. 



Meantime it is gratifying to record that 

 unprejudiced witnesses in many parts of the world 

 have declared the members of the quartette just 



[76] 



