File:The Burbank seed book (16578530737).jpg

" We gladly reprint an editorial which appeared in the'Vacaville Reporter November 20, 1897, as it expresses more forcibly than anything we have seen, the estimate in which Luther Burbank is entitled to- be held by his fellowmeu : " 'If we were asked who, of all the citizens of California, is the most prominent in the eyes of the world, and who has done most to deserve the thanks of his fellow-citizens, we should make haste to speak the name oi Luther Burbank. Moreover, when the average man stops to think of what he has done, he cannot but be surprised that so great a benefactor of the human race should not be more honored. We do not remember that he has ever figured among any list of " prominent citizens," nor do we recall any effort to interview him and find out his opinion on any one of the thousand questions the newspapers permit the " prominent citizen " to talk to the people about. If a man secures a fortune, honorably or not, he is at once in the public eye, and continues there until he dies. He is generally mentioned for political honors, and, if he be very rich, is pretty certain to have a chance to see his name figure as a candidate for the United States Senate. Luther Burbank has done more than all of the rich men of California, added to the infinitesimal quantity representing the accomplishment of the workers in the political vineyards. He is unknown to many of the people of the State, nevertheless, and possessing qualities which rank him with Stevenson, Howe and Edison, and which have given him fame in all parts of the world, we will wager that in the county of Sonoma a pretty good percentage of people can be found who do not know of any particular reason why he should be possessed of any reputation. If Burbank was living on the Continent the highest honors would be his. Living in America, he has been appointed Vice-President of the American Pomological Society, and some sort of a committeeman on new fruits.' "— Analy Standard. THE TREND OF HORTICULTURE. " Untamed Nature thinks only of the perpetuation of its species. The wild plants of field and forest luxuriating in the warming rays of the summer sun, extract from the soil the nourishment and vitality essential to the completion of their little round of life; and then having passed through their short cycle of existence, from the bursting bud to the ripened fruit, they droop and die. The mysterious operation of growth and death is repeated season by season, and one generation is but a reduplication of all the others, modified slightly by peculiar conditions of soil and climate. The pattern of nature is spread out with glorious possibilities, but the individual efforts of the plants to raise themselves above their kind are abortive. Their hopes are blasted in the bud, flower, or fruit ; the limitations imposed upon them prove insurmountable barriers. •* 1 ." , Im Pr°vement and progressive development begin with man. The struggling plant that has outstripped its kind and stands on the verge of decay, knowing that it will be replaced the following season by another whose feeble growth may neutralize all the good that it has accomplished, suddenly finds itself lifted to more congenial surroundings. The mere struggle for a precarious existence instantly ceases to absorb all its strength and powers. The arbitrary laws of Nature can no longer limit development and expansion, and the plant has leisure and opportunity to cultivate the beauties and refinements of a new life. "The flowers take on a fairer and more delicate hue, improving in size and beauty by slow magical processes ; the foliage intensifies in strength and color to form a fitting background for the blossoms, and the maturing fruits develop a sweetness and lusciousness heretofore existent only in a potential state. The plants slowly differentiate from their kind, assuming the appearances and characteristics of a new order, retaining, however, enough of the blood of their ancestors to drag them down to the level of their old primal stock if once freed from man's control and left to their mutual selection."—/ ippincotfs. No one unacquainted with this unique work can form any conception of the labor and study which his discoveries have involved. " What Shakespeare was to poetry and the drama Luther Bur&ank is to the vegetable world." " This immense work is conducted so quietly that no one except the great experts of the plant world woulc.