LUTHER BURBANK 



When any visitor who has the recollection of 

 such souvenirs visits my garden and sees mam- 

 moth clusters of beautiful blackberries growing 

 on vines as smooth as pussy willows, the impres- 

 sion gained is both vivid and lasting that here is 

 a plant improvement of a very notable order. 



In point of fact, there is perhaps no other sin- 

 gle plant development in connection with small 

 fruits that constitutes so radical a change and so 

 conspicuous an improvement as the removal of 

 thorns from the blackberry. The bush itself no 

 longer needs the thorns to protect it against ma- 

 rauding deer or sheep as it did in the days when 

 it grew in the woodland or nestled in fence cor- 

 ners. On the contrary, as we have elsewhere sug- 

 gested, the thorns are now detrimental to the 

 plant in that they take a certain amount of energy 

 and building material that might be put to a bet- 

 ter use. 



And from the standpoint of the horticulturist, 

 the thorn is not merely a detriment; it is a nui- 

 sance of such significance as materially to inter- 

 fere with the cultivation of the blackberry and 

 very greatly to reduce its popularity. 



It may confidently be predicted that, once the 

 thornless blackberries are generally introduced, 

 the really delicious fruit that they bear will be 

 seen far more commonly in the market than it 



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