The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-05-22
A Talk With Luther Burbank
The Wizard Tells of Some Successes and
Some Failures. - - = =.

mon white opium poppy and anothe,
l OFTEN l am unable to account for I'LL
looked-for results of my experiments
} but in this case the reason was to b
found in the tendency of the opium
poppy sometimes to produce red flow
ers; and, though the particular flow
er l used in this cross was white
the hereditary strain was in its bloot
and cropped out in the offspring.
"A desideratum in the improve
ment of plants is to secure new varie
ties that shall mature more quickly
than the original ones Few people
note the fact that different indiyid.
ual plants of the same species often
have different rates of growth You
think one blade of blue grass in your
lawn grows just as fast as another,
| while, as matter of fact, some pro-
duce their seed four Or five times as
quickly as others.
1T is the same way with trees, 7
have been working for a good while
to produce quick bearing chestnut
The ordinary chestnut of the woods
may take fifteen years from the seed
ing stage, but as a result of my ey-
perimenting | have a specimen tree
on my grounds this year, six months
old, that has borne two perfect burrs
and each has its regulation quota of
nuts. Now I can almost promise you
chestnuts while you wait.
Failures? Oh, yes. have fail
ures. Here is a picture of an i'm
proved prune plum. 1t excels the old
kinds in size and sweetness, but it is
complete failure as prune for the
reason that the skin. instead of split
ting lightly in shallow lines in the
dip to which prunes are subjected
before dying. cracks wide open like
a plum skin in canning.
Then there was my cross of the |
raspberry and strawberry. Theoret-
cally that cross ought to produce a
good new fruit. I succeeded in get
ting between 800 and 500 vigorous
seedlings from the crossing, and they
hove well. The plants had the tri-
ol1ate leaves of the strawberry pa
'ent. but occasionally they would
lend up canes-that was the rasp-
Jerry in them. BY and by they
doomed. large, perfect flowers, that
ave every evidence of maturing
eeds, but not solitary fruit set up
N the whole plantation. It was a
traightout failure. but somebody will
e able to establish that cross ye..
One interesting feature in plant
experimentation is the occasional
ropping out of reversions to print
i've forms now lost through long cul-
walton. This fact gives us a hint
to the original form of some
lants no longer found wild. am
lst now running Indian corn"-in ,
Is New England way Mr.. Burbank :
Ills 1t lnJun corn-"back to where
was maybe two or three thousand
ears ago. Corn. as we know it to-
ny, is an artificial product. the re-
lit of generations or centuries of
lection before the white man ever
w 1t. 1 have already secured forms
18th the grains borne in the tasseJ.
re other grasses, fo- corn is
ass.
The variation in the leaves OF
ants makes an absorbing study.
ID | would like now and then to de-
lop something new in the foliage
lie, for leaves can be made as beau
III as flowers; but there is SO much
be done among the flowers that I
leaving the leaves for the pres
t."
Luther Burbank's talk is singular.
Tree from egotism. He is absorbed
the love of his subject, and as he
lches lightly now on one feature
1t, now on another, he impresses
with the feeling that his work.
from being hard to do. is really
y easy. That, however, is the
1plicity of genius.-Philadelphia
cord.