16 



sought for means to filch the rapidly increasing reputation. 

 Others visited him -^-ith the covert purpose of exposing him as 

 a charlatan after inspecting his methods, but, confounded by 

 what they saw, went down the little hedge-bordered walk that 

 leads to his quiet home shamed into silence." 



Chapter II details the methods of work of this horticultural 

 wizard. On pages 40-43, a list of some of the miracle-like ac- 

 complishments are set forth. Among these are "The improved 

 thornless and spiculeless edible cactus, food for man and beast, to 

 be the reclamation of the deserts of the world"; the union of the 

 plum and the apricot, said to be an impossible accomplishment; 

 a plum with a Bartlett pear flavor; a tree which grows more 

 rapidly than any other tree ever known in the temperate zones 

 of the world; a dahlia with the scent of magnolias, a calla lily 

 with a Parma violet's fragrance, a chestnut tree that bears in 

 eighteen months from seed, an amar^dlis with flowers nearly a 

 foot in diameter, a calla with flowers 10-12 inches across, a rare 

 fruit called the pomato, "which grows upon the top of a potato," 

 and so on. This genius, according to Mr. Harwood, so remark- 

 ably possessed with horticultural intuition, has bred the pits out 

 from the plum, the bitter tannin from the English walnut, given 

 a trailing-arbutus perfume to the verbena, created new species 

 long thought impossible, taken the horrid thorns oft' from black- 

 berries, and make them beautifully white in fruit. All these 

 have been accomplished and the "half has not yet been told." 



On page 51 is computed the gross financial returns for 160 

 acres of average farm land for 12 years if planted to one of Bur- 

 bank's hybrid walnut creations. The sum is ^485,000, very 

 nearly half a million. The expenses to be deducted from this 

 in the form of care, taxes, etc., are said to be small. On 

 page 68, a paragraph is devoted to Mr. Burbank's work on the 

 chestnut. Ordinarily, we are told, the chestnut trees raised from 

 seed are from 10 to 25 years old before they bear nuts. Now 

 this was altogether too slow for these modern days, so Mr. Bur- 

 bank produced a tree that bears nuts when seven months to a 

 year and a half old. The readers of this review, possessing desert 

 properties not accessible to irrigation will l)e interested in state- 



