Complimentary Banquet to Luther Burbank 



o 



This is the poetic expression of a very profound philos- 

 ophy, and the poet Rudyard Kipling sought by this means to 

 enforce the value of citizenship in a great nation. 



Our National Government has been ready at all times 

 to respond to this duty of stretching the road of the in- 

 dividual citizen "a nation's length," and making the heights 

 of achievement easily accessible. We are honored by the 

 presence of Honorable George C. Perkins, senior Senator of 

 California, and to him has been assigned the sentiment: 

 "What the Government of the United States has done for 

 Agriculture and Horticulture." It affords me the highest 

 pleasure to introduce our able and distinguished fellow-citi- 

 zen, Senator George C. Perkins. 



Response, Senator Perkins. 



Emerson has said: "If a man can write a better book, 

 preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than 

 his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the 

 world will make a beaten path to his door." 



The force of this maxim has been truthfully illustrated 

 in the life of our distinguished guest, for scholars and scien- 

 tists not only from our own country, but from many foreign 

 lands have made the pilgrimage from afar to the Mecca of 

 Santa Rosa to see the cactus and rose bloom without brier 

 or thorn, and to taste delicious fruits whose flavor has been 

 intensified by his wooing. 



Only once do I remember of our guest being misrepre- 

 sented. It was in Philadelphia when I called at a nursery 



. 18 . 



