LUTHER BURBANK 



auger. To what extent the interference with the 

 supply of nourishment that was being convoyed to 

 the buds retards their development, might be inter- 

 esting matter for observation. 



But this is something that does not greatly con- 

 cern the sugar maker, and to which he doubtless 

 never gives a thought. 



It is also interesting to conjecture whether it 

 might be possible by selective breeding to produce 

 a variety of sugar maple that will furnish sap in 

 exceptional quantity and of unusual quality. The 

 case is obviously different from that of the sugar 

 prune or the sugar beet, both of which have been 

 trained to increase their sugar content. 



But there is no doubt that different individual 

 sugar maples differ widely in their sap producing, 

 or at least in their sap rendering, quality. Pre- 

 sumably the difference may be due to the size of 

 the root system. But so far as I know there are 

 no accurate observations on the subject, nor has 

 anything been done to determine whether a better 

 race of sugar maples could be developed. 

 OTHER PLANT JUICES 



The extraordinary plant laboratories that man- 

 ufacture sugars out of water and air is capable of 

 transforming these sugars into many unusual sub- 

 stances, differing in character with the constitution 

 of the particular plant. 



[246] 



