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Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, Cal. 



What better gift has American Horticulture lately received than these 

 fruits and nuts, and the greatly improved seedlings and crosses from them ? 

 And yet we have the fullest sympathy with all nurserymen who desire to 

 introduce only those trees, fruits and flowers which have been widely tested, 

 and which will prove better than any before known ; delicious, productive, 

 handsome, hardy and reliable in every respect. We ivoidd very much prefer to 

 have all our neiv fruits and flowers fully tested everywhere and by everybody ; 

 but those who know the facts are too well aware that it would be a perilous 

 risk or utter ruin to the originator, as a single bud or seed in the wrong hands 

 may place an unscrupulous person on an equal footing with the originator, who 

 may have spent worlds of patient thought and toil, during the few short years 

 of the best of his life, in producing the beautiful creation. Having no Govern- 

 ment aid or even protection, or college endowment to back us and to pay our 

 bills, we must receive early returns, in part at least, for our tremendous 

 expenses. Most of the horticultural world now knows *that we would not 

 send out a plant which was thought to be unworthy ; else would the keenest 

 and most level-headed business men — men who have built up mammoth horti- 

 cultural establishments which are a wonder far and near — pay thousands of 

 dollars for a single plant or tree which they had never seen, to one living in a 

 far-off State or nation whom they had never met ? as they have done in the 

 past and will continue to do in the future, and with ever-increasing confidence. 



DO NOT IMAGINE that because the purchaser of the control of any of 

 our new fruits and flowers happens to be so enthusiastic as to overpraise them, 

 painting their virtues in far brighter colors than we have done, that the 

 originator should be blamed. Great loss, vexation and disappointment come 

 from mdiscriminate and ^inwarraiited praise. Indiscriminate commendation has 

 a tendency to discourage all the honest efforts of originators who might, 

 perhaps, otherwise receive some reasonable compensation for their labors. 

 Purchasers will discover their real value sooner or later ; and those who 

 advertise discarded plants of ten or twenty years ago, find their business and 

 reputation waning, as, in these days, people are becoming more discriminating, 

 finding that everything labeled "good" or "bad" is not necessarily so 

 because it is so labeled. 



DO NOT EXPECT the best fruits of our labors to be put on the market 

 first. Producing new varieties of superlative excellence is not a lottery, but a 

 matter of many years of sincere study, and a more or less thorough, practical 

 knowledge of the sciences as w^e find them to-day, which will require almost a 

 lifetime to secure. Only the rudiments can be obtained from books ; each one 

 must work out facts for himself as he finds them indicated here and there. 

 Imperturbable Mother Nature requires us to use our own mental search-light 

 to guide the way, rewarding all earnest students and faithful workers without 

 partiality to any. 



In the pages following I give extracts from horticultural journals, letters, 

 etc., so that all maj^ know ivhat others say in regard to my work and its results, 

 both horticulturally and from an educational standpoint. No one will question 

 the sincerity or etni}ie7it ability to judge of those whose words are quoted here 

 and there along these pages. 



" ' New Creations in Fruits and Flowers ' is a hybrid between a history of some of the 

 ^.most wonderful creations in fruits and flowers, delightfully told, and a catalogue beautifully 



gotten up All the descriptions have a sort of Arabian Nights' fascination about them, 



but they are fully endorsed by some of the most notable horticulturists in our country." 



—Florists'' Exchange. 



