THE MAN WITH THE MICROSCOPE 
125 
ground and planted the first trees of a tree nursery 
which was to become famous all over the country. 
So Burbank went on raising trees and selling them, 
and the more he sold the more he planted. This took 
more money than he was able to make, so that he was 
always in need of cash to widen his business. He was 
as honest as your own father, but he was such a modest, 
bashful young man that he could not persuade the banks 
to lend him money. One day when he was digging away 
in his garden, wondering how on earth he was going 
to pay next month’s bills, he saw a team of horses 
coming down the road, driven by a neighboring farmer 
whom everybody knew to be a miserable old miser. 
Imagine Burbank’s surprise when the team drew up 
beside him and the old farmer began. 
“Young man, I notice you’re always tending to busi¬ 
ness. Need a little extra cash once in a while?” 
And what did that farmer do but lend Burbank two 
hundred dollars without so much as asking for a 
promise! 
At last fortune smiled on Luther Burbank, and he 
began to succeed. When his tree nursery earned for 
him ten thousand dollars a year, he shocked all of his 
friends by selling it. He said he was tired of raising 
trees just to sell them and make money, he wanted to 
spend his time making new plants and new trees and 
