The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-09-15
BURBANK TELLS Of
DISCOVERIES
Sixty Six Samples Sent to
Prof. Wickson of Uni
versity of California.

Berkeley, Cal, Sept. 15.-The fol-
lowing letter, accompanying gift
of &C varieties of plums, was re-
ceived the other day by Prof. E. j.
Wickson of the University of Cali
fornia from Luther Burbank:
Santa Rosa. Sept. 1, 1910.
Prof E. j. Wickson, University of
California, Berkeley, Cal.
Dear Sir: AS you have pub
lished a. book on fruits, and as
moments at this season to send you
moments a this season to send you
some sample plums, which | have
not had before during the past five
years while connected with the Car
negie institution, nor this summer
until the present date, | send you
by express prepaid, today &C varie-
| ties of new plumS, all seedlings, of
the tough little bush plum. 'Mariti-
ma which is about the size of a
large garden pea, as you know.
Il began on the Martina plum
| 20 or more years ago on account of
/ it's extreme hardness and its utter
contempt for any ordinary climatic
conditions, and have been jOked a
good deal by Judge Leib and others
about my 'dinky little plums, but
by pollenizing the best of the Tri-
foras, Americas, Domesticas, Dam
sons, Myrobolans, Simonii, Nigras,
Wild Goose, Chickasaws, Sand plums
and all their various hybrids, have
produced a strain of plums which
will outbear anything ever seen in
the fruit line, except possibly some
of the improved opuntlas.
Grow Twenty Feet.
While the Martina grows about
three feet high these new varieties
will often grow Is to 20 feet, but
never quite as large perhaps as other
plums. Compact in form, and as GER
tain to produce fruit annually as they
are leaves or buds; all without ex-
ception have Maritima-like foliage,
untroubled by insects, fungus or any
thing else; all with one exception
ripen between August Is and No
vember Is, this exception being
plum weighing about one-fourth of
pound each, which ripens from
June IS to September; all have small
blossoms like the Martina, carrying
in size, however; all without excep-
ton bloom after other plums are
done blooming, thus escaping all
spring frosts and vicissitudes of CHI
mate 'Nuf sed,' taste EN-! Am too
busy putting up bulbs to burden you
any more. These samples are few
which l happen to have on hand to-
day. | have 1900 more varieties of
the same.
Faithfully yours,
LUTHER BURBANK"
Tendency to Variation.
This exhibition is chiefly signifi-
cant as illustrating the natural ten
dency to variation, and variation as
extended and Influenced by crossing
wild species with the pollen from
blossoms of other wild species and
the horticultural varieties developed
from them Burbank's work is large
ly based upon these tendencies to
variation, as promoted by the not
able skill and exceptional breadth of
effort.
All the fruits shown are produced
| through one seed-parent, the prunes
Martina, by using different coloniz-
ers. The wonderful variations pro-
duced can be better appreciated when
it is remembered that the seed-par-
ent of all of them is Gas Mr.. Bur-
says in his letter. wild plum, hard
ly larger than a pea, borne upon a
low shrub occupying most inhospit
able situations upon the sea coast of
New England and elsewhere.
Most of the varieties, striking as
some of them are, are not horticul-
turally valuable, because other va
rieties now in use are Just as good.
! Only a very few out of thousands of
varieties can be counted real horti-
cultural acquisitions. This accounts
| for the fact that Burbank has to de-
stroy perhaps a thousand crosses to
one, which, according to his high
standards of judgment, he considers
worthy of farther Orona cation