LUTHER BURBANK 



This same plot of land, modified in places by 

 treating with sand to make it suitable for raising 

 bulbs, has doubtless grown a greater number of 

 varieties of plants from regions near and remote 

 than were ever elsewhere grown on any four acres 

 of the earth's surface. 



THE LONG-DEFERRED PROJECT 



By about the year 1884, then, I was thoroughly 

 established with a nursery business that gave me 

 a sure income of ten thousand dollars or more per 

 year, and nothing more was required than to con- 

 tinue along the lines of my established work to 

 insure a life of relative ease and financial 

 prosperity. 



But nothing was farther from my thoughts than 

 the permanent following of the routine business 

 of the nurseryman. At no stage of the work in 

 California had I given up the expectation of devot- 

 ing the best years of my life to plant experimen- 

 tation and the development of new races of use- 

 ful fruits and vegetables, and of beautiful flowers. 

 And now the time seemed to have arrived when 

 the long-deferred project could be put into 

 execution. 



So from the very hour when my nursery busi- 

 ness had come to be fully established I began 

 laying plans for giving it up. 



The practical work in the nursery itself had, 



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