LUTHER BURBANK 



the profit to the asparagus grower, simply because 

 of the trifle that the more costly asparagus stands 

 up through all the operations from the garden 

 to the table, while the other, broken down in 

 structure, presents a messy, unappetizing appear- 

 ance when served. 



Since it costs no more to raise the higher priced 

 asparagus, after the expense of a few seasons of 

 selection has been paid for, what excuse can there 

 be for producing the other kind? 



It would be impossible, here, to begin to 

 catalog the improvements which can be wrought — 

 improvements in the size, shape, color, texture, 

 juiciness, flavor, sweetness, or chemical content 

 of fruits; improvements in the appearance, ten- 

 derness, taste, cooking qualities, and nutritive 

 elements in vegetables; improvements in length 

 and strength of fiber in cotton, flax and hemp; 

 improvements in size, flavor, solidity, thinness of 

 shell of nuts; improvements in the quantity and 

 the quality of kernels in grains; improvements in 

 amount and in value of the chemical content of 

 sugar beets, sorghum, coffee, tea and all other 

 plants which are raised for their extracts; im- 

 provements, wonderful improvements, in the stalk 

 of corn, even, so that though we could make it 

 bear no more kernels, or no more ears, it would 

 still yield us a better and bigger forage crop; 



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