LUTHER BURBANK

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 17 December 1927, Page 11

LUTHER BURBANK

QOXTRIBFTTOXS of new fruits, flowers, and .shrubs to the wealth of the world that may exeeed the value of the introductions he made during the whole lifetime make up the legacy Luther .Burbank left, to the world, writes Mr. Wilbur Hall in the “Sydney Morning Herald. ’ ’ This belief grows out of a survey, now being completed by horticultural experts from the Stark Promological Research Laboratories, of the trees and plants which Burbank had stored, without introducing them, on his experiment farms at Santa Rosa and Sebasto. pol, California. A partial list of the treasures inventoried in the report of the experts includes the following: — 120 new plums 30 new cherries 18 new peaches 4 new nectraines 28 new apples 3t new pears 10 now plumeots 27 new prunes 10 new berries 5 new grapes 500 hybrid roses 53 new gladiolus I

and a wide assortment of entirely new flowers and vegetables, including tritrain as, shasta daisies, petunias, a new “sun-proof” fire plant, or amaranthus combustion, improved varieties of Burbank’s ornamental “rainbow corn,” many new shades of giant zinnias; artichokes, asparagus, rhubarbs, and corn; and some 20 new onamental shrubs, including a magnolia tree that bears a cloud of tulip-like white blossoms, arid is an acclimatised variety of a Chinese toe.'

It was well-known by those acquainted with Mr. Burbank’s work and methods that a considerable number of new varieties had been perfected before his death, but even those closest to him have been astonished and delighted at the extent of the list and the quality of the perfected experiments which will shortly be ready for graudal introduction to the fields, orchids, and gardens of the world. Most of these new things are located on a 15-acrc plot of ground which comparatively few people ever heard of. It is situated near -Sebastopol, nine miles south-west of the famous Santa Rosa gardens of the great plant, experimenter, and was Burbank’s storelie, use for completed work and his laboratory for the perfection of his fruit experiments. He called it the Goblridge Experiment Farm, the name deriving from the local designation of the rich and nearly frostless belt whence come, the famous Sebastopol Gravenstein apples. GOI.DRIDG E FARM. Mr. Burbank bought the 'Goblridge Farm in IS'B4, put a strong fence around it, padlocked the gate, erected .earning signs against trespassers, and ■oncent rated there all the big and vital work he did on larger experiments, with the exception of that on flowers and on cactus. As his experiments were brought to perfection, he left them there, making careful tests and keeping complete records of all of them over a period of several years to bo' sure that they continued to measure up to his high standards. From 1893, when he issued a bulletin, which he called “New Grentions in Fruits find Flowers,” until about 1910, Burbank sold new varieties, at first at

HIS LEGACY TO MANKIND

NEW VARIETIES OF FRUIT

retail and later at wholesale to nurserymen and seedsmen. In 1910 finding, this introduction of new varieties an anions and expensive business, he dropped it and centred on the sale of seeds and bulbs only, from which grew up what he called the “seed business.” The latter was simple, economical, and profitable enough to enable him, with such income as he derived from writing, lectures, and the like, to maintain himself, and keep up his extensive and costly experiments.

His records show that, the latter averaged a cost to him of more than twenty-five thousand dollars a year for thirty-five years; he often said that a single flower-bud or a first new fruit represented to him an outlay in cash of anywhere from five hundred to five thousand dollars, without counting his own time, labour, arid genius.

j With an nutlet for his seeds and j bulbs, the great experimenter found j more time and strength than before for tlie production of now fruits, and on this work ho eoncontrntod on the G-old. ridgo farm, propagating and studying experiments on a larger scale than ever attempted before by any man. At one time, according to his records, he had over 800,000 separate fruit experiments on the Goblridge land. Within a year or two the experiments began to be completed; when a plum, for example, had attained the size, colour, flavour, and bearing qualities he was looking for, Burbank would mark it, file his records on it, and pass to the next. Presently, his memoranda show, he was completing from thirty to fifty experiments a year. All of these remained on the Goblridge 'Farm; none of them were reported on or exhibited to the world, and none of them were distributed. AN EMBARRASSMENT OF TREASIIfES. The accumulation of these horticultural treasures became great enough at last so that Burbank, who alone knew what was there, began to consider a method for distributing them to growers ami garden lovers. Mis life-work had been, in his own words, “the training of plants to work for man,” and he had no intention of having any of these valuable new varieties lost or left to bloom and bear -only for himself. But the introduction and distribution of now fruits is a tedious, expensive, and difficult matter. Past seventy, full of honours and succeeding admirably with his seed and bulb business, the plant wizard was loth to involve himself in the complexities of the new fruit introduction. That he was determined to do it, however, is indicated bv several letters, written in 1924 and 1925. 'On April 11, 1920, lie died, after a two-weeks’ illness. The responsibility of giving his accumulated new fruits and the last of his experiments with flowers and shrubs to the gardens and orchards and fields of the world devolved on bis wife. hi tlie dilemma in which she found herself she remembe'ed that Mr. Burbank had often said: “ If anything happens to me, Paul Stark, president of the American Pomological Society, is the man to introduce the new things.” Mrs. Burbank communicated. with Starlc. ,

I ; The result was that, on May 7, 1927, Stark, who is one of the best-known pomologists and fruit nurserymen in the world, and who is connected with the biggest nursery in America, was given the jealously-guarded key to the Goldridge Experiment Farm. He sent a staff of horticultural experts from the Stark Pomological Research Bureau staff, in Missouri, and put them to work on a survey of the farm and of the Santa, Rosa garden.

SURVEYING THE EXPERIMENTS,

1 he fruit task of these experts was to give a key number to every tree and plant on the farm—in all more than 28,000 specimens. Blooming records were made, the ripening dates set down, the quality of fruit or flowers borne was noted; when the fruits ripened the quality, texture, flavour, acidity, sugar-content, and so on of each variety was studied and tested; photographs were made, and samples were sent- to the Stark -Laboratories at Louisiana, Missouri, for more elaborate tests such as those of cooking or preserving, keeping qualities, shipping qualities, and so on. Meantime the records Mr. Burbank kept of every experiment he performed were loaned to Stark; his experts compared their own findings with those of Mr. Burbank as set forth on his charts and in his record books, and many of his observations wore added to those of the Pomological Bureau. It. was soon found that the small staff first detailed to the work was insufficient to cope with the undertaking, and while more men were added the number of new varieties is so great that Stark announced in October that it will be impossible to complete the survey this year, and that another summer season will be necessary for the consummation of the task, even roughly. Therefore, an arrangement was made between Stark Brothers and Mrs. Burbank which will enable the experts to carry the work forward tver a period of years. The testing of these new fruits is not completed with the work above outlined. Burbank had a genius for selection, and his co-operation with Nature over a period of more than 50 vetrs enabled him to tell pretty well where his productions would grow, thrive, and blossom or boar. But for pi act leal purposes lie had to send them to widely-varied locations for trial in differing climates and soils; this work will have to be done by the Stark organisation, and soon Burbank new fruit productions will be going out all over the world to experiment stations, agricultural colleges, and chosen individuals for tests and reports as to adaptability to varying climates and soils. That many of these new fruits will prove generallv superior to anything now grown is the confident claim of the experts, who are familiar with all known orchard products and wrvn speak with authority. Luther Burbank himself told bis wife shortly before his death that “the new fruits at | Sebastopol are more valuable and! greater in their possibilities than all those put together tha't. I have introduced since I began distributing new creations in 1893.”