How to Judge Novelties 
3 
have since been produced on my experiment farms and two of these are 
described in this circular, and more will be offered later. 
The BURBANK CRIMSON WINTER RHUBARB met with flat 
failure in interesting anybody, simply because it had absolutely new and 
unique qualities which at first were wholly unappreciated. To-day nearly 
all rhubarb growers in warm climates recognize it as the best and most 
profitable of all rhubarbs, and it is without doubt the most valuable vegetable 
introduced during the last quarter of a century. Fortunes have been made 
and are still being made from it in California and also in Florida. It has 
been rightly named "The Mortgage Lifter." Chief Forester of the English 
Government for Africa reports that at Cape Town, where all other rhubarbs 
had been a complete failure for two hundred years, the BURBANK CRIM- 
SON A/VINTER is a complete success, as it has later proved to be through- 
out all of Africa, where it is being generally introduced by the government 
officials. BURBANK'S GIANT is a great improvement over all others, 
excelling the original Crimson Winter Rhubarb at least four hundred per 
cent. This is becoming even more popular, if possible. It will produce 
stalks of most delicious flavor throughout the whole year, outyielding any 
of the older rhubarbs at least three to one. Other greatly improved new 
ones are now also offered.* 
The BURBANK POTATO, which was produced on my old home place 
in Massachusetts in 1873 — nearly forty years ago — received little attention 
at first, but to-day is grown each season by the million bushels. Many hun- 
dreds of new varieties of potatoes have been introduced since, but the BUR- 
BANK is more and more extensively grown as a main crop. One of the 
best known horticulturists of America agrees with others, that the BUR- 
BANK is of late gradually but surely taking the lead of all other varieties 
in Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Utah, Missouri, and in the States of Oregon 
and Washington it is now the universal standard, and in our own State 
of California, where nearly all varieties ever introduced have been tested, it 
is also the standard. When first introduced here in 1876 old potato growers 
would have none of it because it was new and because it was white. You 
will have to hunt a long time to find red potatoes now. 
The following letter will better illustrate the situation at this date 
than can any words of mine: 
"Stockton Chamber of Commerce, Inc., Nov. 19, 1910. 
Mr. Luther Burbank, 
Santa Rosa, Cal. 
Dear Sir: 
Tn reply to your letter of November 17th, asking for some data regarding the 
potato output of this vicinity, will say as Statistician for the Count)', my researches 
* Two or more unprincipled dealers have been persistently offering these plants 
in the cold Northern States, well knowing that they could not prove successful. 
