LUTHER BURBANK 



To go back to our cherry seedling, now six 

 inches above the ground, if we were to depend 

 on nature's processes, by careful planting and 

 cultivation we might produce cherries in seven 

 years; but by short-cutting through grafting, and 

 short-cutting grafting itself through Mr. Burbank's 

 plan, we shall have our cherry crosses in 1914 

 instead of in 1920 — five hundred of them all on 

 a single tree, so that they can be plucked and 

 laid out, first, for a visual selection, to pick out 

 the ones which conform to our ideas of color, 

 and size, and beauty; and, second, for selection 

 through taste — to find the one, or the two, or the 

 dozen among them which come nearest the ideal 

 of our original mental blue print. 



Perhaps of the five hundred cherries spread 

 before us, none maj^ fit the blue print; or perhaps 

 one or two, approximating it, may show signs of 

 further improvements which ought to be made. 



Eliminate the rest, and start afresh with 

 those two — begin at the very beginning witli them 

 again — mix up their heredities with other 

 desirable heredities from near or far, gi'ow seed- 

 lings, produce quick fruit through grafting, and 



select again. 



* * * * « 



Every little bit Mr. Burbank has, as the neigh- 

 bors choose to call it, a $10,000 bonfire. 



[202] 



