Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1910-06-29
A1dsIT TO BURBANK's FARMS.
Some of the Wonderful Things Found
at Santa Rosa, Cal.

q euL VI tlie boSlOl lIaHScIlpL VISITED
4 Mr. Burbank at Santa Rosa. The
y Transcript Of recent date gives in
detail the story Of this visit Of Mr..
4 Gleason, and this article Is condensed
Mr.. Gleason to the Boston Transcript.
j Mr.. Burbank accompanied his vis-
4 itors to the garden from which visit
4 orS we've ordinarily excluded and he
4 tf23 as their guide, philosopher and
4 ff~nd. OF this garden Mr.. Gleason
writes:
Just inside the gate there was a
clump Of majestic cannas, larger and
more brilliant than any we had ever
seen-a variety which Mr.. Burbank
told us had received 4 gold medal at
j the st. Louis Exposition few years
4 ago.
Then came a bed Of giant amaryl-
lis, with flowers nine inches in diam
4 eter-as compared with two inches
In the ordinary amarylls-and of
the most striking and varied colora-
ton.
Across the path was bed Of Mex
lean evening primroses which. under
Mr. Burbank's magic hand, were pro-
ducing splendid white flowers four
and five inches in diameter.
Nearby was large mass Of GRIM
SON eschscholtzia-the familiar Cali
fo1lia poppy, which had been per-
~ ri M rl1
hue into a lovely crimson
Not far away was another bed Of
pure white California poppies, and
still another in which all the flowers
were Of the most exquisite "old gold"
color.
OF Shirley pOppics there was an in
describaDle wealth of beauty and
bloom. One bed was devoted exclu-
sively to blue poppies-whcn was a
blue poppy ever known before? ?--and
1t was intensely interesting to see
here the experiment actually in pro-
gress Of making new Hover by care
fully wedding out all imperfect speci-
mems and saving the seed OF only
thoSc WHICH SHOW Il tcnQcncS toward
the desired standard this seed to be
planted again next year, when fur
ther selection will be made, and so
on, year after year. until the perfect
blue flower is secured
Then there came bed Of fragrant
Verbcnas, also some elegant double
bachelor buttons" which likewise
had Il unique fragrance This quail
ity OF fragrance, our host informed
us, is the most difficult to impart to
flower, but he has succeeded in
number OF instances, one of the most
noteworthy being that Of the fragrant
Gala lily. The Shasta daisy-that
marvellous result of combining three
different dasies from three different
continents-camc up for comment
and Mr.. Burbank showed us his latest
Improvement on the Shasta daisy it.
self-a superb double flower, very
much like chrysanthemum but
with the advantage over that flower
of extending its bloom throughout the
year. In a shady corner Of the gar
den we found a bed of ''land-crcss,"
as Mr.. Burbank calls it--a plant with
a. the virtues OF the well-known wa
tercress, but growing in dry soil in
stead Of running water
The next day Mr.. Burbank accom-
panied his visitors on tour Of in.
spection over five extensive farms
where his experiments in plant cul-
ture are carried on. At Sebastopol
they spent the whole morning.
Here are located the "prOving
grounds, where the most careful and
exhaustive tests are made to deter
mine the final quality OF the count
less new varieties Of fruits, flowers,
yl3getables and trees.
Ae of the most important of these
was in progress at the time Of our
visit, which was in the height oi the
cherry season. Mr. Burbank told rs
that he had at least 10000 varieties
OF cherries under observation. and
there were many single trees, none of
them Of large size, which bore over
300 varieties each. Out OF this vast
number a very few are selected as
worthy Of being pcrpctuatcd. The
chcrry-testing season is very siren
nous time, as the work OF Sampling
all these and selecting only those
which he desires must be done within
few days.
First, a number Of Mr.. Burbanks