Some Interesting Failures 



A Petuna With the 

 Tobacco Habit — ^And Others 



A WELL KNOWN and appreciative critic, 

 after a visit to Santa Rosa, commented 

 on my work in a way that seemed to 

 suggest that what most appealed to him was the 

 great variety of experiments constantly being 

 carried on. 



"Every plant seems to appeal to Luther Bur- 

 bank," he said. "This appeal is quite unlike the 

 appeal that is made to the botanist or even to 

 the horticulturist; Burbank likes it because it is 

 a plant and because he would like to try to modify 

 it. Therefore he grows everything he can, no 

 matter where it comes from or of what kind. He 

 cultivates with personal care, multiplies the stock 

 to the limit of his capacities, scrutinizes every 

 variation, hybridizes widely, saves the seeds of 

 the forms that most appeal to him, sows again, 

 hybridizes and selects again, uproots by the hun- 



[VoLUME U— Chapter IX] 



