Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-05-03
BURBANK THE
REAL WIZARD
MARVELLOUS THINGS ACCOM-.
PLISHED ~ HIM IN WORLD
OF HORTICULTURE.


slight lad searching for something in
potato patch. If he had stopped to
watch, he would have seen the boy
throw himself down on the ground
and weep bitterly because he could
not find that for which he searched
And the traveller probably would have
been greatly surprised, if he had ask
ed, to find that what the boy was
searching for was not stray penny
or long cherished Barlow knife, but
the pod from one of the potato vines.
After several days search Luther
Burbank found the potato pod. 1t
was a pod from the then famous Early
Rose vines. From the one he found,
he planted the seeds, and one of the
seeds produced a potato which has
since been famous as the Burbank po-
tato. The boy sold the potato to a
New England seed merchant and went
west, locating at Sebastopol, Cal,
about seven miles from Santa Rosa.
On his farm there he has grown flow
ers that never fade. a cactus that has
no thorns. a prune that has no stone,
any many other strange products
which have made his name famous
among horticulturists, and, more re-
Gently. we'll known to many people
who could not tell barley from wheat,
except by the taste. And the best
part of it all is, that everything this
marvellous man produces must be of
practical value before he considers it
worthy of being given to the world.
Thousands of plants are yearly de-
stroyed because his labors to improve
them have proved vain.
Exhibit at Portland.
Mr.. Burbank WILL for the first time,
make a complete exhibit of his strange
plant products at the Lewis and
Clarke exposition, which is to be held
in Portland this summer. The exhb.
it will contain all of the more famous
products, and is sure to be found of
unusual interest. 1t will be one of
the most noteworthy attractions of
the western worlds fair, which will
have beside many other things we'll
worth making the overland trip to
see.
Luther Burbank has been conduct
ing his plant breeding farm in Cali
fornia now for 80 years. His fame
has spread until every marketable
product he produces is now eagerly
sought for by gardeners and horticul-
turists. Yet the cost of conducting
his farm is every year more than the
revenue, and the inventor may die
poor. Andrew Carnegie has recently
come to his assistance by providing
$4,000 year for ten years to en-
able him to carry on his experiments
on larger scale
Burbank is described as man of
quiet. unassuming ways. who is anX-
lous % live his own life and do his
own work without the interference of
the curious. He lives simply, in a
vine covered cottage, and is regard
ed by his ignorant neighhors as a
harmless idiot. While still in the
prime of life. he is thin almost to
emaciation, and his white hair gives
him an appearance almost of veneer
ability. He has no laboratory, no
workshop, no scientific instruments,
no assistants. All there is at Sebasto
pol is the earth and the man, but the
earth and the man have produced
from far and near. In order to dis
courage the merely curious, who form
erly took up a great deal of his time
Mr.. Burbank now charges interview
ers $40 an hour.
Selection, combined with breeding,
composes the keynote to Burbank S
wonderful success in plant culture.
The wizard of agriculture sees a
pr,in he,
self some elements of beauty, but
that has little attractiveness in it's
present condition. He selects a large
number of specimens of various other
towering plants. He may get num-
Der of different results in this way,
and none may be satisfactory. The
prlmus berry, the discovery of which
is the first recorded instance of the
production of fixed species by man,
was the result of years of labor. The
berry is the offspring of the native
California dewberry and the Siberian
raspberry. Burbanks efforts TO pro-
duce this berry at first brought him
5000 seedlings not one of which was
of permanent value. He therefore de-
stroyed 100000 berry bushes, from
one to two years old, by burning them
the primus berry was produced, as
most things are produced which Bur
bank strives for.
The Hybrid Walnut.
The hybrid walnut is another Won
der1ul production. This is the fast
est growing tree on EARTH and it's in
PRODUCTION has made it possible to
raise Walnuts as easily and in as
snort Tune, as currants or raspber,
ries. When the wizard was exper-
lmenting with the walnut he decided
that it's shell was too thick. BY
breeding and selection he produced
a nut with a skin so thin that birds
could break through it with their
bills and rob it of its meat. So he
breeded back until he had a nut with
shell OF the proper thickness.
one OF Burbanks more recent and
most wonderful discoveries is a fade.
less flower, which he calls the Austria
liam star flower. This he produced
after careful crossing. recrossing and
selection from a half hardy annual
which was discovered in west Cen.
trail Australia. The plant may be
grown IN almost any soil, and its
fowers, which are of a peculiarly
pleasing red, when cut. retain their
form and color in perfection.
The plumcot is another invention
made by crossing the plum and the
apricot. A white blackberry of de
lightful flavor is recent production
and stoneless prune is another won
der. He has trained the cactus plant
10 grow without thorns, so that its food
value, both for cattle and men, may