BUBBANK'S 1920 ^EW C BE AT IONS IN SEEDS 
29 
LUTHER BURBANK 
HIS METHODS AND DISCOVERIES-THEIR 
PRACTICAL APPLICATION 
Inlrodiiction by the Publishers 
Of the 1260 full page direct color photograph prints, and the twelve volumes of 
text matter which enter into the make-up of the complete exposition of Luther 
Burbank's methods, it is possible to give but the barest glimpse in a synopsis, such 
as this. The process of color photography used in making the originals for the 
illustrations was perfected on Mr. Burbank's own grounds. Every third page is 
a direct color illustration — more than one hundred to each volume — the twelve 
volumes representing an unusually entertaining collection of rare subjects in 
all their natural colors. The text matter — of equal importance to human and 
plant betterment — represents ten years of compilation and editorial work. The 
one hundred and five chapter heads, even with their sub-captions, can hardly 
convey any idea of the unexpected mines of practical knowledge and of the new 
viewpoints of familiar truths, all of which are more impressive because of their 
unexpectedness. 
This edition is illustrated with 1260 direct-color photograph prints made by a 
new process — devised and perfected for the exclusive purpose of illustrating 
Mr. Burbank's writings, in a photo-chemical laboratory established on his experi- 
ment farm — which, for the first time in the history of book illustration, enables 
the reader to see the exact thing which the author sees and describes. 
It is costing nearly two hundred million dollars a year to maintain agricultural 
institutions — two hundred million dollars spent each year to teach better methods 
of soil culture. 
Yet, in spite of this expenditure year after year, the average acre-yield has been 
increased by a bare fraction over 3 per cent. 
If those who depend upon the soil for their livelihood knew what Luther Bur- 
bank knows — if his simple methods and discoveries were placed within their 
reach — the acre-yield would increase not by per cents and fractions of per cents, 
but by doubles and trebles — without any expenditure of public funds. 
In electricity there are four big names; in mechanical invention a score; a 
hundred have been designated the Captains of Industry; and the roll of those 
who are prominent in educational and scientific research would run into the 
ihousantls. 
In i)lant improvement, however — a more basic field than the rest, because every- 
ihing depends upon what we grow from the soil — there is but one big nan'ie 
lowering above the others — lutheh buhbank. 
And now, after fifty years of labor and more than one hundred thousand plant 
improvements wrought, Luther Burbank has written into convenient book form — 
profusely illustrated by a new process of natural color photography — all that he 
has learned, told it so simply that none can fail to understand; made it so clear 
that all may apply and profit. 
The same methods which Luther Burbank employed in the production of the 
beautiful Burbank rose, have been and can be applied to the improvement of any 
plant that grows; and more, to the definite improvement of the human plant itself. 
Towering above the ten thousand practical lessons in plant transformation which 
Luther Burbank teaches, there is One Big Lesson — the working understanding of 
the power of new environment to bring out the best of old heredity — in human 
beings, as well as in plants — a lesson which has never before been portrayed with 
such crystal clearness as that with which Luther Burbank portrays it in his 
writings. 
All that Lather Burbank has ever done has been done through the control and 
manipulation of those two great forces in life, plant and human, HEBEDITY AND 
ENVIBONMENT. 
And just as Mr. Burbank, going among his plants, is able to bring out the desir- 
able and subdue or eliminate the undesirable, so, too, may we, through an under- 
standing of the laws of heredity and the operation of environment, mold the minds 
and the careers of our children almost at will. 
