LUTHER BURBANK 



with the entire stretch of their racial histories, 

 since the two fruits branched from the same stem. 

 And so it is quite to be expected that the two 

 would readily cross. In point of fact, the experi- 

 ment of cross-poUenizing is so readily performed 

 that it is very often carried out by the bees. 



The hand poUenizer may make the test suc- 

 cessfully without the slightest difficulty. 



I was led to experiment along this line by the 

 recollection of an old peach tree called a "Meloco- 

 toon", four of which stood in our home garden in 

 New England, and one of which, as I well recall, 

 had a single branch high up in the tree that al- 

 ways bore a fruit quite different from the peaches 

 with which its other branches were laden. This 

 anomalous fruit, which appeared as a "bud- 

 sport" was in fact a nectarine. 



I had learned also that when peaches and nec- 

 tarines were grown in the same neighborhood, one 

 could never be certain as to which fruit would 

 grow when the seed of either fruit is planted. 



You may plant a peach seed and grow a nec- 

 tarine tree; or, far less frequently, you may grow 

 a peach tree from a nectarine seed. 



The explanation, of course, is that the two 

 tribes are constantly intercrossed when growing 

 side by side, through the agency "of the bees. 



Pondering these facts, I determined to make 



[152] 



