/6 



ly four times as many new varieties 

 have been Introduced by other dealers. 

 Most of the introductions of otliers are 

 not now generally even listed." The 

 Burbank plum, which was Introduced 

 less than twenty years ago, is now per- 

 haps more widely known than any oth- 

 er plum, the world over; but, ho says, 

 "hundreds of better plums have since 

 been produced on my experiment 

 farms." The Burbank potato is now 

 the universal standard in the Pacific 

 Coast States, and is gradually taking 

 the lead in the Middle West. The new 

 Burbank cherry is sold at high prices 

 in Eastern markets. Altogether, there 

 are already above a hundred valuable 

 new plants, fruits, and flowers, "every 

 one of which has proved better than 

 those known before in some new qual- 

 ity, in some soils and climates. All do 

 not thrive everywhere. Please name 

 one good fruit or nut that does." 



The last two sentences are directed at 

 those of Burbank's critics who trium- 

 phantly point to cases of failure of his 

 new products in this or that locality. 

 Judgment has to be used; "certain vari- 

 eties which are a success in one locality 

 may be, and often are, a complete fail- 

 ure a few miles distant, or near by on 

 a different soil or at a different eleva- 

 tion." The Burbank Crimson Winter 

 Rhubarb has been offered by unprinci- 

 pled dealers in the cold Northern States, 

 though they must know that it cannot 

 prove successful there. For this new 

 type Mr. Bui-hank makes the claim that 

 It is the most valuable vegetable intro- 

 duced during the last quarter of a cen- 

 tury. So many fortunes have been made 

 with it in California and Florida that It 

 has. been named "The Mortgage Lifler." 

 The chief forester of the Government of 

 South Africa reports that at Cape Town, 

 where all other rhubarbs had been a 

 failure for two centuries, the Burbank 

 Crimson Winter variety turned out a ^0 

 complete success. Yet Mr. Burbank now ^ 

 has a still further improved variety, the 

 Giant, which excels the original Crim- 

 son Winter Rhubarb "at least 400 per 

 cent." 



"It is amazing what opposition one 

 has in experimenting, and the ignorance 

 there is to contend with," writes an Eng- 

 lish appreciator of this American's re- 

 markable horticultural achievements. 

 Yet Luther Burbank declares 

 greatest inconvenience or inj 

 has met is not misunderstand 

 dice, envy, jealousy, or ingratitude, but 

 the fact that purchasers are so often 

 deceived by unscrupulous dealers who, 

 misusing his name, foist upon the pub- 

 lic green carnations, hardy bananas, 

 blue roses, seedless watermelons, and a 

 thousand other things, including United 

 States Government thorny cactus for 

 the Burbank Thornless. On this point 

 Mr. Burbank writes with feeling. Four- 

 teen years ago the first scientific experi- 

 ments for the improvement of cactus 



plants were Instituted on his farms. 

 Eight years later, when the long and 

 costly labor was crowned with success, 

 the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture spent $10,000 in searching the 

 world for a cactus of great agricultur- 

 al and horticultural value like those al- 

 rea'^ yiuduced on his farm, but the re- 

 sult was a failure; the "spineless cac- 

 tus" sent out by the Department of Ag- 

 riculture is not spineless, not safe to 

 handle or feed to stock, and the fruit is 

 small and poor. 



Nine years ago Prof. L. H. Bailey of ^ 

 Cornell wrote of Mr. Burbank: "lie ^ 

 secures his livelihood from the new va- 

 rieties he sells to seedsmen and nursery- 

 men, but his experiments are so exten- ''^_-T^''Ci 

 sivo and he tries so many things for 

 the mere zest of it, that he does not' 

 make money"; and he suggested that," 

 fc-ome philanthropist could "render 

 good service to mankind if he would en- 

 dow this experimental garden and allow'' 

 its proprietor to devote his whole ener-.^^--^^ 

 gy to research." A few years later the 

 Carnegie Institute undertook that ser- 

 vice, hut the alliance did not last long. 

 Mr. Burbank now writes that "after hav- 

 ing been under 'capture' for the avowed 

 purpose of 'the benefit of science' for 

 five years by the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, five years of care, lean- 

 ness, hampering restrictions, and un- 

 profltablo conditions, and having dictat- 

 ed to and corrected for their botanists 

 beveral thousand pages, it is a most 

 gracious relief to return to a life free 

 from the red tape of institutional re- 

 strictions, to a life of active freedom." 

 At present, he adds, he has reorganized 

 his whole business and promises to give 

 to the world more good fruits and flow- 

 ers from time to time. This he will 

 doubtless do. 



175 



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