Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1908 — Luther Burbank. [ARTICLE]

Luther Burbank.

The following very Interesting paper liras prepared by Miss Nelle Ryan iud read by her before the Science Club of the high school at the De<6ember meeting at the library. Luther Burbank, the greatest plantbreeder In the world, was born in Lancaster, Mass., on March 7, 1849. .From his father he inherited a great love for books and from his mother A love for everything beautiful. Prom his earliest childhood he was passionately fond of flowers and all Linds of plants and preferred plants as pets instead of animals. One p’ant that he was particularly fond of was A lobster cactus which he let fall and break. He grieved over his pet plant as any other child would a dog or bird. When he was old enough to go to •school he surprised his teach ers by ibis love for study of nature and birds. Even now he may be seen to turn from the discussion of s me Important problem of human life to listen to the song of some bird. At the age of twe've he had such A knowledge of nature and flowers as few boys have at that age. He read and reread all books on nature and science that he could get and his favorite author was, and is, .Ralph Waldo Emerson, When he was quite young he was watching some men put together ji •nower. There was one piece which they could not find a place for, and young Burbank, stepping forward, told the men where to place it. They did as he said and it fitted exactly. .All the men were surprised by t e .knowledge shown by the boy, and asked him how he knew wheie that particular piece belonged. He replied “Because you couldn’t put it anywhere else! ” He worked for several summers In a factory receiving only fif.y «»nts a day and, as it cost him the same amount to live, he had to study for a long time how to make both ands meet. Finally he discoveied a way to construct a machine which would do away with the labor of at least one-half dozen men. He made the invention and his d lighted employers gave him a large increase in salary.

All his relatives and friends declared that he would become a g.eat Inventor If he would make that his life work. But he disregarded their advice, as he did in later'years, and although the course he has followed led through toil and suffering, he has never had reason to regret it. After he left the factory he began market gardening and seed raising in a small way. There, then, came ft day that he never forgot, a red letter day in his ealnedar. He noticed on the green tops of some potatoes he was raising many variations, but only one bore a seed ball. He thought if from such a great lot, only one bore a seed ball, its product would show still greater varations. Consequently he planted the seeds and- got a variety of fine potatoes, one of which he sold to a seedman for $l5O. From it earne the Burbank potatoe which has added millions of dollars to the nation. Shortly after that he suffered from a sun-stroke and sought a climate where he could remain out-of-doors without fear of another attack. So in 1875 with ten of his new potatoes and a slender purse, he started for “CuHforwa, to an unimproved valley between two spurs of the Coast Range Mountains, which is today a fine farming country. He was then twenty-one years of age and possessed of much vitality and endurance. He wished to work awhile till he got enough ahead to start a nurseiy, and day. after day he applied for work but met with no success and his small store of money kept getting smaller. Finally he secured work, which barely kept him alive. He was not able to pay for regular night’s lodgings and for months made his bed in a chicken coop. Very often when work was scarce he was reduced to absolute want. At last he found steady employment in a small nursery. at very Bmall pay. But he was not able to hire rooms and slept In a room above the hothouse, where for days and nights at a time his clothes were never dry. Constant exposure brought on an attack of fever. A neighbor woman found him, one day, in a very critical condition and insisted upon sharing with him enough food to keep him alive. He protested saying that he might never be able to repay her and it looked as though he would never live to do it but the woman insisted and saved bis life. Never, for a moment did he waver from the course he had marked odt for himself. He had a resolution M Irftn, a Kill of steel, and a heart Of gold. When at last he rose from his sick bed and went about in Bearch Of Work, tilings began to turn more and more favorably in his behalf. He went from one odd job to another saving a little money until be was able to start a business for himself. He bought a small plot of ground

and established a nursery, which was to become famous throughout the country. During his early manhood, amid privations and discouragement, •he never let go of his plan of life —not only to be a raiser of plants but an improver and creator. When he first set up in business he began to experiment. One day he took an order for 20,000 yonng prune trees. Ordinarily it would take two of three years to raise the trees, but he had to have them ready in nine months. He immediately began to scour the country for men and boys to plant almonds, which were the only seeds he could use that would grow at that time of year. In a short time the young shoots were ready for budding. 20,000 prune, buds were grafted into the growing almdnds, and when the alloted time was up the tre?s were ready and young Burbank was a gre':t deal richer. There came another red letter day in his calendar. It was the day he decided to give up his nursery business and devote his entire time to plant breeding. His friends and relatives were not in favor of this new decision and urged him to continue his business, which Was so profitable, but he dis.egarded their advice and entered upon his new line of work. Slowly he put into effect his new plans. When he had tested a new fruit or flower or an improved old one, he kept it back until he was absolutely sure it would do exactly what he said it wuold. This is a good example of the truthfulfaess of his character. He always tells -the truth and his word is considered “good as gold’’. Although there is nothing secretive in his nature, yet there are depths which his nearest friends do not fathom. He is always just as he is and is absolutely unspoiled by flattery and praise of his deeds. He is frank and unreserved, yet those who have believed they knew him thoroughly, have f und even after a course of years, that they do not He is a lithe figure, full of nervous strength, with hair and mustache streaked with gray end eyes full of fire, aglint with earnestness, twinkling with merriment or sad or gay as the mood passes. His face is the face of a philosopher or a wise man of affairs. He is quick of movement, soft and gentle of speech, a rare conversationalist when in the mood, but more inclined to draw others out than talk himself. Once started on some subject of deep interest, he becomes so enhusiastic that he almost exceeds the limit of moderation. He is generous in the praise of others and in complete sympathy with any one in trouble. He is witty and humorous and, every one who has met him says: “He was a man, talfc him for all and all, I shall not look upon his like again.” The alms of Mr. Burband are three: 1. The improvement of old varieties of fruit, flowers, grasses, trees, and vegetables. 2. The merging of wild or degenerate types of plant-life with tame or cultivated ones. 3. The creation of absolutely new forms of life unknown to the world. The general character of his work is encluded under two heads! 1. Breeding—This is accomplished by sifting the pollen of one plant upon the 6tigma of another, which results in fertilization. 2. Selection —This is choosing the best and rejecting the worst forms. He sometimes lias five hundred experiments under headway at the same time, some of which require ten or more years to become perfect He uses acres of ground and out of. a million plants two or three, or even one, of the best is selected. *When he sees two plants which have degenerated and which have great possibilities, whether they are of the same kind or a far different species, if each one has some desired quality he unites them and startles the world with the result

He took an English walnut and crossed It with a common California black walnut by pollenlnation, raised seedlings from these, then selected the very best and kept doing this until he had a set which he was willing to trust to themselves. A half dozen of these were put out in front of his house in the street, and neither cultivated or Irrigated. In 1895 when fourteen years had passed, the trees were nearly eighty feet high and their trunks two feet in diameter at the height of a man’s head. The wood Is of fine grain, hard, having a lustrous Bilky effect, and taking a high polish. He named this the ’’Paradox." Another one of his productions Is the royal walnut which will grow in any climate, made by uniting the California black walnut, an old fashioned New England black walnut He has also created a chestnut tree which bears nuts In eighteen months. Another so-called commercial achievement of Mr. Burbank's Is the pomato. This was made from many varieties of potatoes and tomato plant It is a fruit and not a vegetable, ap-

pearing at first as a tiny green ball on the top of a potato plant It grows to be the size of a small tomato and Is white, hearing a few small seends, and is delicious either ray or cooked. The Improvement of the prune and plum is another commercial achievment The new plums arid prunes have been produced by crossing and selection of seedlings. Sometimes Bix or seven plums are combined to get the desired result One very important plum is the one he has made with out a pit, a combination of a tiny plum with a very small pit which grew in France, and other large ones.

When a sma’l boy, Mr. Burbank loved flowers of all kinds, but the one he loved best of all ’ was tbg^ common field daisy. He knew /it was a worthless little flower and an outcast and resolved to help it to a higher place in the world/ He ne er lost sight of this resolution and after many years he began to look for another daisy which would help him. In Japan he found one with a wonderful whiteness which belonged to no other daisy he had ever se n. But this was not enough, so he obtained ih England a daisy which was larger and coarser and had a le s graceful stem than the other. First he polienated the English daisy with the ii tie field one, and the Japane e daisy w th the result Soon he had many thousand blossoms growing from this combination, and he selected the be t cine-half dozen and from them produced the wonderful “shasta” daisy, which he named after Mt. Shasta, because of its whiteness. This beautiful daisy ranges from three to six inches in diameter, is snowy white, on a long graceful stem. Another plant upon which he rp nt years of study is the cactus. This was the most stubborn plant* be had ever dealt with, but he saw great possibilities in it. It was hardy and its leaves were juicy and nutritous, but could not be eaten because of the thorns. There were two things which had to be removed, the countless thorns and the woody f.bre of the tballi. This was accomplished and is probably the greatest one of bis creations, for it is now suitable for food even for man as well as for beast. It will grow anywhere adn is most valuable in the desert. He once secured a few seeds from a blackberry growing in the Himalaya mountains. He kept selecting the best through a series of years until he had one plant which covered 150 aq, ft. of ground, stood over eight feet high and bore over a bushel of fruit. Other combinations are black raspberries, anci blackberries, peaches and almonds, the California dewberry and a Siberian raspberry resulting in the “Primus” berry, apricots and peaches, domestic plums and wild goose plums, quinces, blackberries and many others. In fact, Mr. Burbank says there is no barrier to obtaining fruits or flowers ol any size or form desired, and that all that is needed is a knowledge to guide ones efforts in hte tight direction.