LUTHER BURBANK 



"Everyone has; the fruit that you call a necta- 

 rine is precisely that thing — a peach without the 

 fuzz." 



"But that does not serve the purpose at all," 

 he insisted. "If the nectarine is a peach that has 

 lost its fuzz, it is also a peach that has lost its 

 flavor. What we want is a fuzzless peach with the 

 true peach flavor remaining." 



"Well, I think I shall be able to satisfy you 

 even there before a very great while," I answered; 

 "for I am on the track of experiments that are 

 likely to meet all your requirements in that direc- 

 tion. Even now I have a fruit that is smooth- 

 skinned and yet is unquestionably a peach — ^not 

 only that, but a peach of excellent flavor. But it 

 is not yet quite good enough to put on the market, 

 and I shall have to carry the experiment a stage 

 or two farther before I am ready to demand that 

 monument." 



And then I led the way to a part of the orchard 

 where 1 was able to show a number of peaches with 

 perfectly smooth skins, some of which are by no 

 means ill-flavored, even though none quite com- 

 pete with the best peaches now on the market. 



My visitor assured me that nothing else that he 

 had seen gave him so much satisfaction or aroused 

 such pleasurable anticipations as this smooth- 

 skinned peach. 



[142] 



