LUTHER BURBANK, THE MAN 
relatives and friends heard of his decision, they 
entered vehement protest. What greater folly 
could a man commit than to abandon a busi- 
ness now netting him nearly ten thousand 
dollars a year to embark upon a project at the 
best Quixotic and sure to end in financial 
ruin? It was the same sort of reasoning he 
had listened to when a boy, when his friends 
and relatives pictured a great career as an 
inventor. 
Ridicule, pity, scorn, harsh criticism, all 
were alike unavailing. He listened with pa- 
tience, but went forward in the line he had 
marked out. So one day in the year 1893 he 
found himself free from the exacting demands 
of his business life, his extensive nursery closed 
out. He had entered upon a career which was 
to be even more exacting than this business 
life, but he entered upon it high in hope and 
rich in resolution. 
Slowly he put into effect his plans. Having 
tested a new fruit or flower or an improved 
old one, he kept it back, following in his old 
lines as a nurseryman, until he was absolutely 
sure it was going to do precisely what he said 
it would do. Not until then was he ready to 
19 
