Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-06-26
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BURBANK, THE PLANT WIZARD
His Home and His Garden At SAINT
Rosa.

His Homo and His Garden At Santa
Rosa.
Wizard" Burbank, who performs
astonishing stunts in his dealings with
the vegetable world, lives in Santa
Rosa, a little town fifty miles north of
San Francisco.
Hundreds of visitors go up to see
him every year, says Hugo de Vries
in the Independent, and Burbank al
ways gives them some Of his pre-
cious time, but he enjoys your visit
only when he perceives that your
ewes are quick at the small differences
by which he selects his new types.
Visitors who expect to see long rows
of beautiful plants will not find what
they supposed, but instead will see
workshop, with it's utter chaos of tools
the tools being the individual plants,
with their almost imperceptible differ
entiating marks.
If you have no appreciation of such
small differences don't try to pay him
a. compliment; your. praise will miss
its aim, because by the choice of the
plant you mention he will instantly see
how much you know about methods
and results in plant breeding.
In person, Burbank Is slender, al
most to frailness. 1t Is now nearly
thirty years since he came to Califor-
MIA from Massachusetts, where he was
born. He Is about sixty years Of age.
He is a tireless worker spending many
hours each day at his experimental
grounds.
The finer experiments he conducts
at Santa Rosa, on the farm where he
lives: but he owns other grounds In
the neighborhood, at Sebastcpol, where
his largest cultures are to be found
His house Is a little cottage, where ne
lives with his old mother, lady OF
about ninety. 1t is approached through
closely trimmed box borders.
In outward appearance he Is plain
man, more a gardener than a savant
with clear blue sparkling eyes, full OF
life and fun. He appreciates humor IN
others, and told us stories that kept us
constantly laughing. He began his
business as an ordinary gardener, cul-
tivating fruit trees, shrubs and now
ers for sale. In the beginning he had
a. big nursery and won money enough
to increase his business rapidly; but
he preferred the improvement OF his
varieties and the production OF new
ones. So, as soon as his means allow
ed, he disposed Of his nursery.
He now sells only novelties, and
leaves their multiplication for trade to
other men. For some Of those varie-
ties large companies have been found
ed, since from the one Seeding which
Burbank may have won and sold, hun
dreds Of thousands Of trees have to be
produced before the novelty can prof.
itably be brought into trade.
When talking, his eyes glow with
love of his plants, many Of which he
remembers individually, even for
years. Some kinds of flowers are his
special darlings. He tries to make
their bloom brighter and richer, to ex-
tend 1t over a longer season and to
make them cheaper so as to bring them
within the reach Of the pooreat people
He is always watching the flowers
of the fields and woods. AS soon as
he discovers a type which Is new TO
him or excels in some attractive quail
ity he will take the plant or its SEEDS
home with him for experiment.
BY crossing and selecting he will I'M
prove the type almost beyond recogni-
ton, as in the case Of the wild tiger
lilies and Of the Shasta daisies whose
blossoms are as large as the palm OF
ones hand.
His most important recent achieve
ment with fruits is the production OF
a stoneless prune. The seed Is naked,
unprote cted by the ordinary woody
shell. so that one can bite right through
the fruit. These stoneless prunes are
not yet ready for trade, as they have
still to be improved by renewed
crosses.
When this has been done all the ex-
fsting varieties of plums will be cross
ed with the stonless prune, so that they
too will be stoneless, although they
will not lose their distinctive flavor
Stoneless prunes and plums will be as
common then as seedless oranges now
are.
A single instance will show what a
valuable asset Luther Burbank Is In the
wealth of the country. His first con-
tributEon to our productions was a new
potato, which now bears his name.
According to an official statement OF
the United States department of agri-
culture at Washington, made a few
years ago, this Burbank potato Is add
ing to the agricultural productivity OF
the country an annual amount Of ST.
900 000 To convey an idea OF the
enormous number Of Burbank potatoes,
some one has calculated that II all the
tubers produced in one year were ar
ranged in a row, touching one anoth-
er, the line would be thrice the dis
tance between the earth and the
moon.
THE DOG IN FICTION.
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