LUTHER BURBANK 



The comparatively rapid development of this 

 curious form of plant, so widely divergent from 

 the ordinary tomato, illustrates the possibilities 

 and suggests the compelling interest of such ex- 

 periments in hybridizing and selecting even our 

 commonest garden plants. 



The work is of course no different in principle 

 from that followed by the plant developer in the 

 orchard, whose work has been detailed in earlier 

 volumes. But there is this important practical dif- 

 ference : In experimenting with such a plant as the 

 tomato, we get results quickly because the plant 

 grows and fruits in a single season. The results 

 of any given experiment may be known within a 

 few months of the time when the seed is planted. 

 This is quite different from the case of the orchard 

 trees, which require, as we have seen, long periods 

 of patient waiting, few of them bearing, even 

 under forced methods of grafting, in less than two 

 or three years, and some of them, such as the pear 

 and fig, requiring a much longer period. 



On the other hand, there is one regard in which 

 the orchardist has an advantage. It is not neces- 

 sary for him to fix his new varieties so that they 

 will come true from the seed, inasmuch as his 

 plants will propagate by division. But in dealing 

 with plants of annual growth, like the tomato, it 

 is obvious that a new variety can have little value 



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