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 



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