Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1907-12-18

luggage in the wet and cold were
siad to get away and turn our faces
toward Hawaii.
Yes; | had a most satisfactory.
though short, visit with Mr. Luther
burbank at his home at Santa Rosa.
1t is practically impossible for people
TO see him nowadays, as he feels that
that there is such. an. amount of
work which he wants tolaceomplish
that his moments a,e prectousA He
hasa secretary, anda store Of stenog-
iaphcrs, for he is occupied now in
getting out work in twenty-five vol!
rmes. lie himself told me that re
valued his time now at ffteen.hun-,
drcd dollars an hour. and as we talkSi
cd stcadil yand walked about his garf
lens for two hours, | made u three-i
thousand-dollar call upon him, so to
speak
81 do not know exactly how ex-
pccted Mr.. Burbank to look. was
not prepared, however. to find him,
IN appearance. so much u student and
thinker, and SO little like a man who
Lad worked much out-of-doors. He
is of medium height, thin, smooth
| face, white hair and has keen but
! Kindly blue eyes. lie. came briskly
into the room where was waiting
for him. and greeted me in very
| friendly and cordial way. ! had been
corresponding with him for several
| years also had at this time Il let
/ ter OF introduction from Mr. David
Fairchld Of Washington; so that |
had no trouble in getting my APP
| continent
He wasted no time in prelimina-
. les, but sat down directly in front
Of me. and said We'll now, Mr.. Will
Ger, what is it that you would par
ticulHrly like to know?'
II was quite prepared for this Qucs-
| tIOn, for | had made up my mind not
| to talk about all sorts OF things. but
to coniine myself TO few questions
rs to the manner in which one might
develop desired qualities in certain
tropical fruits, more especially the
pupaia anA'iavocado. lie answered
me fully. ana gave me much valuable
advice lie said that he hoped that
| would have infinite patience and not
rc discouraged by many failures, for
| it one worked faithfully and intclli-
gently along the right lines, success
was sure to come.
TO illustrate this, he told me Of
how he had worked for many years
to develop the California prunc, so
as to get one as good as the French
/ prune. At last he had a large, sweet
| fruit with small stone, but when
he attempted to cure it, the skin. in
stead of wrinkling, as 1t should have
done, peeled completely OFF. After
! his ten years of labor he started in
all over again to develop as fine
prunc. but with the proper quality of
skin. lie succeeded.
Mr.. Burbank told me that he had
always considered the trOmcul fruits
as orphans, because so little had eve
| been done to develop them, as com.
! pared to the care that bad been given
to the temperate-zone fruits. lie said
that he should like nothing better
than to work with them, but that he
| lad not the time.
In speaking about sugar-cane, he
said that If as much time and money
Lad been spent in its Improvement as
had been spent on the development Of
the sugar-beet, great results would
! have followed.
! Mr.. Burbank has a number of COL
lectors who travel all over the world,
and send to him rare plants; for
many of these he has no time to give,
and he said that he would be glad to
| turn over TO me some of those which
he Thought | might successfully ,cul-
! tiyatc in Honolulu. y
"Thc things which Interested me
most in his gardens were his spine
| less cacti. lie has So far improved
this plant of the desert that he has
produced them free of spincs and
with no fiber, and the fruit. which
is about the size and shape of a
gposc-egg,' is Il bright pink with n
thin skin, and the pulp is crisp,
sweet, juicy, and delicious.
The day that | visited Mr.. Bur
bank he had sold to a rancher Of Aus
! tralia one of his CaCti for the round
sum of $4,000. ! must say that my
short visit with Mr.. Burbank was in
Spring"
|