LUTHER BURBANK 



I developed it even two or three years sooner, he 

 could have paid a thousand dollars for it. 



I was perhaps a little disappointed, but was 

 contented to accept Mr. Gregory's verdict, and let 

 him have the potato without looking farther. With 

 the $150 that he paid, I came to California next 

 season, having first delivered to Mr. Gregory a 

 crop of the potatoes raised on my own ground and 

 a neighboring piece of land. 



Mr. Gregory permitted me to keep ten potatoes. 

 These I brought to California, and thus introduced 

 the Burbank potato on the Pacific Coast. The 

 name "Burbank seedling," I should explain, was 

 given the potato by the purchaser. Mr. Gregory 

 stated afterward, in a letter now before me, that 

 he chose this name because he decided, "after 

 pondering over the matter, that the one who 

 originated such a variety deserved to have it bear 

 his name." 



Progress of the Burbank 



It is not necessary here to trace the story of the 

 spread of the Burbank potato from one region to 

 another until its annual crop has been estimated 

 to have a value of not less than seventeen million 

 dollars. 



Suffice it that I personally introduced it in 

 California, and that after the prejudice against a 

 white potato had been overcome, the merits of 



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