LUTHER BURBANK 



where, and there was an established market that 

 was practically inexhaustible. 



But, as already intimated, the region about 

 Santa Rosa at the time of my coming was pre- 

 eminently a wheat country, and the farmers in 

 general were far more interested in cereals than 

 in fruit of any kind. It was only after the wheat 

 crops began to fail, through exhaustion of the soil 

 for the special nutrients that this cereal demands, 

 that the thoughts of the farming population in 

 general could be directed toward fruit culture. 



It is necessary to make this explanation 

 because nowadays everyone thinks of California 

 as pre-eminently a fruit country; and so it would 

 not be obvious, without this elucidation, why one 

 could not start in the nursery business at Santa 

 Rosa, in the year 1876, and hope for immediate 

 patronage and a reasonable return for his labors. 



But even if the market had been more certain, 

 it would doubtless have been difficult for me to 

 get a start, because fruit trees cannot be brought 

 to a condition of bearing, or even to a stage where 

 cions for grafting are available, in a few weeks. 

 And I had neither capital nor credit, being vir- 

 tually a stranger in a strange land. 



So it was necessary for me to continue to gain 

 a livelihood by working at carpentry, in which 

 vocation I had now established a sufficient repu- 



[80] 



