BREEDING FOR PERFUME 
it, the most disgusted look on a bird’s face 
he ever saw, flew away. While it has long 
been a mooted question with naturalists 
as to whether or not the buzzards, vultures 
and other birds of prey of their class, see, or 
smell, the carrion which is their delight, the 
view now held by many leading men is that 
they depend wholly upon their sight, while 
Mr. Burbank’s experience with his outcast 
lilies proved in this instance the opposite. 
To breed flowers for a certain quality,— 
beauty, endurance, longevity, hardiness,—this 
is immensely difficult. It is immeasurably 
more difficult to breed them for the produc- 
tion of perfume, their subtlest element. Now 
that Mr. Burbank has demonstrated that 
flowers may be bred for perfume, that odors 
may be changed, that scentless flowers may 
be given fragrance, much work remains for 
others. It is incredible, the amount of work 
he has accomplished. He has still larger 
work before him than any he has ever 
attempted, and, of necessity, very much that 
he has under way must be carried forward, as 
to details, by others. He is never more 
gratified than when some one else can take 
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