- 
LUTHER BURBANK, THE MAN 
cheapen the process of manufacturing a 
plow. 
But there came a day he never forgot, a red- 
letter day in his calendar. He had left the 
factory and had begun market-gardening and 
seed-raising in a small way. It was far more to 
his taste and in direct line with the future. 
He had noticed that there were a good many 
variations in the green tops of some potatoes 
he was raising, and that in this particular lot 
there was but one which bore a seed-ball. He 
had already begun a close study of the charac- 
teristics of plants, and he at once reasoned 
that if this seed-ball came upon but one of all 
the varying plants, its product, if it should be 
planted, should show still greater variation. So 
he watched this seed-ball with unusual care. 
One day, to his despair, he found that the seed- 
ball was missing. He was about to give up 
the whole matter when it occurred to him he 
would make a search upon the ground. He 
found the seed-ball at last, where it had been 
knocked off probably by some wandering dog 
rushing through the garden. 
From it came the Burbank potato, which 
comparatively few people associate with Luther 
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