Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-07-14
UNDER MAGIC WAND.
THINGS WIZARD BURBANK HAS
DONE AND WILL DO.

THINGS WIZARD BURBANK HAS
DONE AND WILL DO.
The Wonderful Results Already Attained Leave
Future Probabilities in Constant Surmise a.
as What May Next Astound the World
The MiIkweed Is to Produce the Morning
Appetizer aud We Are to Have Vegetable
Bcefsteaks-BIue Roses Will Delight the Eye
and Cactus Make a Wholesome Food -
Plums Without Pits and Which Taste Like
| Pears. Have Been Produced. and a Cros.
Made Of Potato and Tomato, Called the Po
mato. Which Is White. Fragrant, Succulen
Fruit.
The science of plant breeding has
almost reached that point in its devel.
opment where it is possible for the
breeder to say to the farmer, "Tell me
what you want and l will give it to
YOU"
The maiden, fancy free, may now
have as much good luck as she likes
for Uollander has learned how to
raise clover that shall have as he wills
four, five, six or seven leaves. Every
one knows that there are oranges with.
out seeds. A breeder in Colorado has
produced few apples which have no
seeds.
According to newspaper dispatches,
some one in Virginia has learned how
] n Gn hn I'll, .raat,a,t a
producer of milk. Juicy vegetable
steaks, resembling beefsteak, are as
serted in other dispatches to be fact.
Whether the stories about the milk.
weed and the vegetable steak be true
or not, breeders have learned how to
secure desirable qualities a. their
pleasure and to develop new species.
What can be- done to satisfy the de.
mands OF corn growers is illustrated
by the accomplishment of the Illinois
experimental station. Average corn
contains certain amount Of oil. In
a bushel there is nearly two pounds
This oil is valuable in the manuiac-
ture of artificial rubber used for elec.
trical purposes, and is therefore oi
especial importance in view Of the in.
crease in the demand for rubber. The
| oil is also used for lubricating pur.
poses, for adulterating olive oil, as we'll
as in the manufacture of soaps, paints
etc.
A company which buys about 50,-
0OO, 900 bushels year offered to pay a
higher price for corn containing a
higher percentage of oil. An increase
in oil of one pound in bushel would
increase the price of corn five cents a
bushel. The experiment station sue.
ceeded in increasing the amount oi
oil from ~ per cent. TO nearly pei
/ cent. in six years. This satisfied one
class of users OF corn. Those who
raise hogs, however, wanted corn with
u low percentage of oil, because il
would produce harder, firmer bacon.
So the station proceeded to reduce the
percentage, and succeeded in decreas-
Ing it to less than 2 per cent.
At the same station the amount oi
protein, which is the element mos,
valuable as food, was increased from
1892 per cent. to IL per cent. in six
years, and also decreased in the same
length of time to 6 66 per cent. The
station was also able to lengthen and
shorten the ears, increase or decrease
the width Of the ear, and to raise and
lower the position Of the car on the
stalk.
In the South, where there was disin.
lin m ,,lovt In -,
cotton, there was demand for kind
Of cotton that would produce more to
the acre. This has been done by in.
creasing the size of the bolls and the
length Of the lint.
The accomplishments OF some pla ut
breeders would make one think the
world could be turned upside down.
Plants seem to do the most unexpect-
ed things at their bidding. The cac-
tus has been deprived of its spines and
made a wholesome food Tor man and
beast. Two absolutely new fruits have
been created, the primus berry and
the plumcot. Blue poppies have been
produced, and it is asserted that it
would be easy to produce blue roses.
Rhubarb plants have been made TO
yield every day in the year. At the
breeders bidding blackberry bushes
are divesting themselves of their
thorny exteriors. If one likes white
blackberries one may have them, for
they are an accomplished fact.
A considerable portion of the United
States is subject to sudden frosts.
Owing to this fact, crops Of certain
fruits, such as plum. nectarine and
peach, are sometimes damaged. Trees
of this type have been trained to resist
the frost. Their foliage and blossoms
may snap and crack with ice in the
morning, but after the genial heat OF
the forenoon sun has melted it they
show no signs OF the blight Of the for
merly deadly frost. The slow-growing
walnut tree has been touched with the
breeders wand, and has become the
fastest growing tree in the temperate
zone.
Beside q picket fence on Luther
Burbank's place in California one may
see two walnut trees which present q
striking contrast to each other. One
Of them is six times as large as the
other. The smaller one, which in size
and shape reminds one Of lilac bush
has been growing for nearly genera
tion-twenty- eight years. The other
which shades the entire corner OF the
yard from the glare OF the MONDAY
sun, has been growing only thirteen
years.
The shells Of the nuts were so thin
on the fast-growing tree that the birds
could pick holes through them. Thi:
was a fault, 80 Mr.. Burbank reversed
the process in this particular and gave
them stouter shells. Dealers in nut:
in some cases have been in the habit
of whitening the meats of the walnut
by bleaching process said to be in
furious. The walnut trees on MIR
Burbank's place, at his bidding. pro
duce white meats from which all th'
tannin, that gives ordinary walnut
their bitter taste, is removed.
The sports of boys have been tam
pered with. 1t is now no longer ne