NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



was free from the bitter taste of its ancestor. 

 Slowly he led it upward by successive selec- 

 tions of the very best of its progeny, always 

 with the one end in view to intensify its good 

 attributes and exclude its disagreeable ones. 

 The result is that he has produced a fruit with 

 not a trace for all time of the bitterness of the 

 old berry, as white as the Niagara or any other 

 grape that can be named, and as delicious as 

 the grape, when cooked or when dried as a 

 raisin. 



But even this does not satisfy him, and he is 

 now at work upon thousands on thousands of 

 seedlings to make still further improvements. 

 It has been for forty years Mr. Burbank's 

 ambition to take this plant of so little value 

 commercially and so inferior, or even worth- 

 less, as a fruit, and transform it into a fruit 

 which should enrich the world. Enough has 

 now been proven to show that he has the end 

 in sight. He has verified his position step by 

 step, leaving nothing to conjecture and refus- 

 ing to allow it to leave his hands, even in its 

 present advanced stage, preferring to wait 

 until still further improvements are effected. 



Among the curiously interesting tests now 



418 



