NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
which, even in trees, we call character. These 
trees answered every argument advanced. 
They were the result of breeding and selec- 
tion; they had not been long in growing, not 
over a dozen years; they were economically 
important. 
Some ten or fifteen years before, Mr. Bur- 
bank had studied the question of tree improve- 
ment with great care. All sides of the plant 
life of the world appeal to him. If he can see 
a chance for improvement, it matters not to 
him what the obstacles in the way or what the 
contentions of those who are chained to tradi- 
tions. He had long seen a chance for marked 
improvement in certain varieties of the wal- 
nut. He took an English walnut and a com- 
mon California black walnut, as types on 
which to work, crossed them by fertilization, 
raised seedlings from these, then selected the 
very best of the progeny; and so bred for- 
ward, ever picking out those which ap- 
proached nearest his ideal until, at last, he 
had a set of hybrid seedlings which he was 
willing to trust to themselves. 
A half dozen of the trees were set out in 
the hard earth in front of his house in the 
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