THE LUTHER BURBANK SOCIETY 



the manuscript prepared by Mr, Burbank and the 

 Editorial Board of 'The Society and it was their 

 suggestions and their comments which determined 

 the final form which appears in these volumes. 



Thus it can truly be said of these books that for 

 the first time in the history of book making the 

 manuscript has been submitted to its every pos- 

 sible class of reader before it has gone into type, 

 and that it reflects the composite desire of what its 

 readers want, rather than the imagined desire in 

 the brain of the author and the publisher. 



From the brief outline given here, it will be 

 seen that the Editorial Board of The Society found 

 much to do in the preparation of the bare manu- 

 script, itself — ^yet this was but one phase of its 

 duties. It was realized at the outset that hand in 

 hand with the manuscript there must go illustra- 

 tions as much better than the ordinary illustra- 

 tions as the manuscript itself was to be better than 

 the average manuscript. 



At the same time that Mr. Burbank turned over 

 to the Editorial Board of The Society his volumi- 

 nous records, he also turned over some three or 

 four thousand black and white photographs which 

 he had had taken of his productions from time to 

 time throughout the years. At first thought it 

 might have seemed that these photographs would 

 have served admirably to illustrate the text; but a 



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