32 
BVnBANK'S 192i iVfiW CREATIONS IN SEEDS 
LUTHER BURBANK 
HIS METHODS AND DISCOVERIES-THEIR 
PRACTICAL APPLICATION 
Introduction 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 ghmpse 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. 
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 
thousands. 
In plant improvement, however — a more basic field than the rest, because every- 
thing depends upon what we grow from the soil — there is but one big name 
towering above the others — Luther Burbank. 
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. 
u methods which Luther Burbank employed in the production of the 
beautilul Burbank rose, have been and can be apphed to the improvement of any 
plant that grows; and more, to the definite improvement of the human plant itself, 
lowering 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 portravs it in his 
writings. 
All that Luther Burbank has ever done has been done through the control and 
^?x"7t//^o!a°V,9!^.?£ ^^'^"^ forces in life, plant and human, HEREDITY AND 
ENVIRONMENT. 
And just as Mr. Burbank, going among his plants, is able to bring out the desir- 
aDie and subdue or eliminate the undesirable, so, too, may we, through an under- 
