Omaha daily bee., 1914-04-26
EVERYTHING FOR THE GARDEN.
BURBANK WORKS SYSTEM
Gets Phenomenal Results by Study.
ing the Habits of Plants.
EMPLOYS THE FUNDAMENTALS
Works All Of His Experiments from
n Natural Foundation and Finds
New Varieties by Graft
ing Species. a

In this the early spring days, when the
men and women whose diversion in
wolves work in the garden and in the
orchard. II might be well to take a lesson
from the resultful methods Of the great
est Of all horticuturists, Luther Burbank.
While the world knows much OF hls
achievements In the creation OF new forms
OF plant life, only very small number
OF those familiar with his work really
know how he gets the phenomenal re-
suits that have made him the genius that
he IT,
Luther Burbank has several funda-
mental methods Of procedure-perhaps the
most important being the hybridizing Of
more or less closely related species and
varieties Of plants. Early in his career
he discovered that he could produce new
varieties, and In some cases new species,
by cross-fertilizlng different species OF
plants As testimonials to his success in
this field, we have his we'll known pIom-
cot. a cross between the plum and the
apricot, crosses between the apple and
the pear, apple and ounce, ounce and
pear, peach and nectarne, peach and
lemon, orange and lemon BY crossing
different varieties within the species. he
has produced hundreds OF new varieties
OF plums, prunes. peaches. apples, pears.
cherries and ounce His stoneless plum
and prune and his gigantic cherries are
notable instances of his creations by
crossing different varieties of the same
species.
Selects with Care.
AS a supplement TO the process OF hy-
bridization comes his keen judgment in
the selection Of varying individuals Of the
same species or variety. BY taking
cherry that bore fruit early in the season,
he developed his present early appearing
cherry. BY selection he evolved the Bur-
bank sugar prune with a % per cent
sugar content.
Burbank's methods precludes guess
work. He always knows exactly what he
ts striving for and only uses such ex-
amples az contain In the embryo the
ultimate qualities desired. II he desires
to make a cherry larger, wider, redder
and Juicer he reduces the size of the
plant and shortens the stem to make
tho tree a hardy and prolific bearer.
He blends the right heredities and after
securing plants that show a given COM
ptuduOn OF u bupcflhtlNe degree, he then
proceeds to produce a great quantity of
seedlings
Saves All the Seed.
Here, perhaps. lies the secret of his
success, for by this he accomplishes.
within comparatively short time, what
would otherwise take years to do. After
his attention is attracted to a plant, Bur-
bank saves all OF the seeds and sows
them In soil placed In greenhouse boxes
about eighteen inches square and four
and one-half inches deep. The soil itself
is prepared by mixing fifty parts OF pure
sand, forty parts OF loan containing leaf
mold, eight parts powdered moss or peat
and two parts bone fertilizer The soil
is moistened by dropping the boxes into
tub OF water The seeds are sown or
the surface and covered lightly with
thin layer of soil and powdered moss
The seedlings are transplanted into a
field and then subjected TO rigid in
spection-out OF many thousand seedlings
Burbank may select less than dozen for
further experiment. In his selection, he