NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



Burbank, the great plant -breeder. The potato 

 which he developed from this seed -ball has 

 not only disproved the dictum of those who 

 said a potato famine was at hand because of 

 the steady deterioration of the world's stock, 

 but it has added to the wealth of this nation 

 alone upwards of twenty millions of dollars. 

 The creator of the new potato sold it to a local 

 seedsman for $150. 



It was not long after this that he suffered 

 a partial sunstroke in the broiling heat of a 

 July day and, seeking a climate where he 

 might be able to live an outdoor life without 

 fear of a return attack, and where he might 

 hope some day to put in effect some of the 

 theories of the development of plant life 

 already stirring in his brain, he started for 

 California, with a slender purse and ten of his 

 new potatoes. He reached California in 1875, 

 and went north from San Francisco some fifty 

 miles ^ to an unimproved valley lying between 

 two spurs of the Coast Range Mountains, 

 today a rich fruit and farming country. 



He was then twenty-five years of age, slen- 

 der, not over-strong, and yet possessed of 

 much vitality and endurance. These latter he 



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