LUTHER BURBANK 



doors, as one would plant the seeds of beets or 

 cabbages. The ground had been prepared with 

 great care, and each seed was placed about a foot 

 from its next neighbor in the row. But no special 

 protection was given the seeds. 



To-day I would not think of planting valuable 

 seeds of any kind in this way. The risk would 

 seem far too great. 



I should now plant them in boxes, after the 

 manner described in the chapter on the care of 

 seedlings, and give them individual attention in 

 the greenhouse. As I look back upon the incident, 

 I have often wondered that I was able to sleep at 

 night while my precious seeds were thus exposed 

 to any marauders of the animal or insect world 

 that might chance to come upon them. 



But a good many times it happens that we pass 

 quite safely and unwittingly through dangers that 

 seem very threatening indeed when we look back 

 upon them. And so it was with my twenty-three 

 potato seeds. Every one of them sent a sprout 

 through the soil in due course, and put out its tiny 

 cotyledons, and grew into a thrifty vine. And al- 

 though no vine of them all produced a seedball, 

 each one developed a fair complement of tubers. 



Needless to say I watched their growth with 

 solicitude, tentatively digging into a hill here and 

 there as the season progressed, to note what such 



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