The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-07
LIFE WORK OF
 LUTHER BURBANK A Story of Modern Magic Applied to Plants
 and Fruits. LATEST ACHIEVEMENTS Has Tanned the Desert Cac- tus at Last-Seedless
 Fruits.
LATEST ACHIEVEMENTS

Luther Burbank has been called a wizard, but the term is misleading, writes George Wharton James in the Circle. There is no wizardy in his achievements. Yet to accompany him to his cactus patch and there see the great, heavy leaved desert plant, so covered with fierce thorns tn al eve1 to stand near it makes one sluirm, and then follow step by step, where, in different sections, he shows the cac- us slowly losing it's thorns, until you stand before a group into which he suddenly dives headlong, taking the great leaves and rubbing his face and hands against them-this does seem like magic.
 It, is even more pleasing and equally surprising to sit at his table and have served to you the fruit of this same cactus-the prickly pear of the Indian but wholly free from thorns and changed from the tasso.ess, Abrous, ssedyr fruit to a rich favore1 jlicy, delicious table luxury
 In his garden not far from the cac- tus patch Is his wonderful crimson rhubarb. Here is the popular pie rlant with stalks two inches ,hiek, and growing all the time, winter and sum- mer, so that the ubiquitous pie may be made fresh from the garl0h all the year around.
 Are you interested In flowers? Then come and look at these gorgeous and splendid creations. Here are peoples, bel after bed of them, all under test. This last bed Is about fifty feet square and there are about two thousand plants in it, Here are popplcs the like of which were never seen before since the world began-hybrids, the results of crossings upon which Mc. Burbank has been working for years.
 There are no two alike. The havcs are wonderfully diverse, and the whtie foliage and blossoms bewiider us by their strange diversity.
 Some of these peoples are vast in size. Seven of them placed side by side vertically are as tall as man, eight as high as a giant, and one could hide completely behind dozen of them, In color they are a mass of crimson and black and white, with many interme- diate blendings, and unlike the ordin- ary poppy, which blossoms only for two or three weeks, these are peren- nials and flower all the time.
 The amaryllis also shows the mar velous life power of his work. In a few years he has developed it from a small flower with a few inches of breadth to nearly foot in diameter, with every shade of crimson, pink or scarlet and many astonishing combin- ations of color.
 But to do this the whole plant-bulb, stem and leaves-had to be changed It seems like magic to the ordinary mind to see the gradual transformation of small bulb to one four times it's size and five or more times it's weight and with its power of multiplication increased eight to tenfoldy To watch the development or creation of a new stem is equally magical. The old anna ryllis stem could never have held these large new flowers, so a stocky, strong, low stem was created.
 Burbank has taken the lily and worked wonders with it. I have stood side by side with him looking at a bed of lilies upon which he had worked for twenty-six years You are looking with me upon flowers that the eye of man has never seen before" And then one by one he tenderly touched a score or more of them, calling attention to their wonderful colorings, differences in size, leafage, etc.
 His achievements with the daisy are more fascinating than a fairy tale. From England, Japan, Germany, Aus tralia-everywher that daisies grew he got seeds of the best varieties, not a few, but hundreds, thousands These were carefully planted and watched.
 They were all going to be slain, but