V e r n n y m a n Kellogg 



It is the extraordinary keenness of perception, the 

 dehcacy of recognition of desirable variations in 

 their (usually) small and to most men impercepti- 

 ble beginnings. Is it a fragrance that is sought? 

 To Burbank in a bed of hundreds of seedling 

 walnuts scores of the odors of the plant kingdom 

 are arising and mingling from the fresh green 

 leaves, but each, mind you, from a certain single 

 seedling or perhaps from a similar pair or trio. 

 But to me or to you, until the master prover 

 points out two or three of the more dominant 

 single odors, the impression on the olfactories is 

 simply (or. confusedly) that of one soft elusive 

 fragrance of fresh green leaves. Similarly Bur- 

 bank is a master at seeing, and a master at feeling. 

 And besides he has his own unique knowledge of 

 correlations. Does this plum seedling with its 

 score of leaves on its thin stem have those leaves 

 infinitesimally plumper, smoother or stronger, or 

 with more even margins and stronger petiole or 

 what not else, than any other among a thousand 

 similar childish trees ? Then it is saved, for it will 



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