2 
B URBAN ICS BULB CATALOGUE 
How to Judge Novelties 
FORTY YEARS AGO, when I commenced extensive work on the 
Gladioli, the best of them then known grew tall, ungraceful stalks 
which were too easily blown over even by a light wind; the flowers were 
small, only a few blooming on the same plant at once, and these so thin 
of petal that most of them were withered before a day had passed. 
What a revolution today! From Nature's Horn of Plenty, new ones 
have been developed which in variety, beauty, and magnificence of 
form, color, and shading of color are unequaled by any other flower. 
My own first efforts were to make the stalks shorter and stronger 
and to induce the small scattering flowers to produce petals of such 
substance that they would resist sun, wind, rain, and heat for many 
days, and to make the colors more brilliant and the individual flowers 
more graceful in outline and of greatly increased size. How well this 
work has been done, the older growers and dealers are well aware, 
and I now take great pleasure in offering some of these wonderful 
Gladiolus in large or small lots at the most attractive prices ever made, 
even for the older and more ordinary kinds. 
This work on the Gladioli has been carried on extensively through 
these many years, while at the same time some six thousand other 
similar enterprises were also under my own personal supervision and 
care. Even when I look now upon the wonderful results of numerous 
other experiments, the work on this unusually pliable plant is among 
the most pleasing, even with the fact before me that the whole Pacific 
Coast fruit industry is being revolutionized, as is more or less the 
case for the whole world in certain lines by the new fruits which have 
originated on my own grounds by my own efforts. From official sources 
I learn that 85 per cent of all Plums shipped overland from California 
and west by sea are those produced and introduced by my own efforts 
in this line — a record unparalleled on Earth before. These Plums and 
Prunes, as a whole, though selling on an average 15 to 18 per cent 
higher than others, also produce at least 60 per cent more fruit, and 
of larger size, more easily handled, and of better keeping quality. 
It is thus readily seen how those who are abreast of the times in plant- 
ing Burbank fruits live in fine houses and have automobiles and satis- 
factory bank balances. Rut Gladiolus, Plums, and Prunes are only a 
sample of the good things produced on my grounds, though these are 
also grown extensively in every part of the Earth where these fruits 
and flowers arc cultivated. 
My perpetual Giant Crimson Rhubarb is also very extensively 
exported from this State. It has made several "Rhubarb Kings" in 
California and South Africa. My Pineapple, Van Deman and Burbank 
Quinces arc wholly making over and upbuilding that growing industry. 
All these new varieties are so greatly superior to all others in beauty, 
