LUTHER BURBANK 



the problem of re-forestration throughout the 

 whole of the United States. 



Perhaps the eucalyptus may be made more 

 hardy by hybridizing and selection. If not, we 

 must take to heart the lessons it gives in common 

 with the hybrid walnuts as to the possibility that 

 a tree may show almost abnormal capacity for 

 rapid growth and at the same time may produce 

 lumber of the hardest texture. 



Hitherto it has generally been supposed that a 

 tree of rapid growth would as a matter of course 

 produce soft timber. The hybrid walnuts and the 

 various eucalyptus trees serve to dispel that 

 fallacy. 



NATIVE MATERIALS 



The one fault of the eucalyptus, its inability to 

 stand extreme cold, is likely to be shared by other 

 trees that are imported from the southern hemis- 

 phere or from sub-tropical regions of our own 

 hemisphere. 



Although, as just suggested, it may be possible 

 to overcome this fault through selective breeding, 

 a long series of experiments will doubtless be 

 necessary before this can be accomplished. In the 

 meantime we shall be obliged to place chief 

 dependence, in all probability, upon our native 

 stock of trees, hybridized perhaps with allied 

 species of Europe and northern Asia. 



[170] 



