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WONDER WORK IN
SCIENCE
CREATING NEW FORMS OF PLANT
- LIFE.
THE THORNLESS CACTUS.
A PLANT FOR ARID COUNTRY.
In the Century Magazine for March
Mr W S Harwood gives "an authoritative
account of Luther Burbank's unique
work in creating new forms of plant life "
To Australians the most interesting portion
of the article is that which describes
what has been done with the average desert
type of cactus, which very closely resembles
our prickly pear Mr Burbank claims to
have developed a highly nutritious them
less cactus Mr Harwood writes -
Dr Hugo de Vries, the distinguished
Dutch botanist, at a dinner to European
scientists, given in San Francisco last July
said of the man with whose work this
article deals - t
"The flowers and fruits of California are
less wonderful than the flowers and fruits
which Mr Burbank has made He is a
great and unique genius The desire to
see what he has done was the chief motive
of my coming to America He has carried
on the breeding and selection of plants to
definite ends Such a knowledge of nature
and such ability to handle plant life would
only be possible to one possessing genius
of a high order '
Scarcely a decade ago Luther Burbank
was virtually unknown to the world He
was held in derision by his relatives in
pity by his friends, in scorn by his enemies
He was denounced by scientific men as
little less than a charlatan, a producer of
spectacular effects, a seeker for the uncanny
and abnormal, an enemy to all true seven
title progress, a misleading, though powerful
prophet, of a new order of things that
could never come to pass
One day a minister in Santa Rosa, California,
where Mr Burbank lives, invited
him to attend church, that he might listen
to a sermon upon the work he was carrying
on He accepted the invitation, and was
forced to listen to an address violently de
nouncing him as a foe to God and man,
one who was interrupting the well-ordered
course of plant life, destroying forces and
functions long established and sacred, ce
during the vegetable, life of the world
to a condition at once unnatural and abnormal
To-day Mr Burbank has become the
foremost man in the world in the production
of new and interesting forms of"fruits>
trees, flowers", vegetables, grasses, and
nuts He has carried his investigations
far beyond the point that he had reached
when the minister had assailed him Last
year more than six thousand men, embracing
among them the very pick and flower of
the scientific life of two hemispheres, made
the pilgrimage to his Santa Rosa home to
study the lines of his investigations, to see
with their own eyes many things which
their scientific minds could not accept as
truth without visual demonstrations, and to
learn some details of the supreme results
achieved During the year thirty thousand
letters were received, coming from every
quarter of the globe, asking for more light
upon his work '
His recognition has been tardy, First
came visitors from foreign lands, where is
experiments were first appreciated, then
seedsmen and scientists of his own country,
many of whom came to scoff, but stayed to
pray Later came a certain perfunctory recognition
from his townsmen, many of whom
had looked upon him as a strange mystic
raising millions of flowers and shrubs only
to tear them up by the-roots and burn them
in great bonfires Now, latest of tall, in
some measure., comes recognition from the
people of his State and his country The
president of one of the great American Um
versities the other day, in introducing him
to an audience of five hundred of professors
aid post graduate students to whom he was
to make an address, referred to him as the
man who each produced more new forms of
fruits, nuts, trees, flowers, and plant life in
general than any other man who had ever
lived since the dawn of creation As this
article goes to press comes a further recognition
in the shape of a subvention from the
Carnegie institution to the amount of 100,000
dollars, available in sums of 10,000 dollars
each rear for ten years
There are millions of acres of and land
upon the globe, much of it, even with
the most persistent irrigation, yielding but
scantily, and enormous reaches of it devoid
of all growth but the cactus, a foe to man
and beast, but Mr Burbank resolved that
he would reclaim it, not by irrigation,
though welcoming its aid, but by means of
the desert itself-the desert and its cactus
its heat, and its sun So for a period of
over ten years he has worked with the ut-
most persistence and skill until at last he
has developed a cactus plant which will
convert the desert into a garden He has
made the cactus thornless, taking from its
leave the hard, woody substance, the spicules,
so dangerous to animal life More
than this, he has made it adaptable to any
has bred this'drraded'scc^ge'of \Ü&;.<3eaen¿í)
Jhra^pjîri^iaî^
.com&^ejp^
various :fopd;i^í^^l?^^§mp||St|^||
^éffimatejíconsíi^
sfoodJlfo^feîcèj'th
the bundaberg
ed from Ofche^fcod::thM)^àht;ëàmonffï^il^3iS
ö£tn'e;^e^k;$ä^^;^
rounds ^^S^if§Bxa(§í^aej^^í^^^^l^
;c^tó;efic^íaverag^dese$^
Jing|h.p£jfé^
^^»^l^ti^^StJpIp^ïâ^u^l^p^
j'g^jen^f^knrS-^
hífe'aifeikv
poundage
is And yet I think ^n^elKnoth_g# óí'ptfié^
secure ;quáIines>of;^
ithe^ict&el^
:a.degreejó'f;:p^
itee|p)ain|í||^^g^|^^^|y
r/A¿qúiimÍí smiles
face of- this ¿graye'-'manlasinejSpluckff^one-w
pf.;,thevfew^
which "^^Êi^t^mi^^m^^È^^^
ray companions
flavo?...__".,__.p_",_r
cucumbers...
Un>diáme$eK&ytí3lt&^^
-nQ.ife:&fïine_ipfê^
?hasípyeríeoo^
this one $lâni.andit_nBoï,-;lheiva^mulg!M
ííph^j^nvoMt^^^^L,J"'-"^:^'^^'s"zSVí
?i^évsométhii^^Èwhat:
íitSápp^arSjSiffife-w^^
and:imáMngí;the;#hO&$-nf^
.eruwhjrá'.reser^ó^
/her.páriftíwayBpAííS^
deceives j^lmtÄbfte^nlrni^^sigW^S^pS
. . "as ,. as.".. ",-JtM*
the: cactus the
tiasrhérisëcréïïs^EèËa^
rOTU¿?;anaV^u:tóis^
skirtings
all haste :an&V^t^^meitö^h^
;thé;:caçtusj:ve^î>m%^^fr
stowaway. wasted on^tHe^ÎAspicïï^i^^aiifs
ing enemy * andynavej-iett fner¿îree' t^i-mitr^il pi
^hër;ener^ï^^
"somewhat ^rn^eiHthSföliKave WtâifôliïTBMnSwM
yButittotV^
a "newspurce^pf iioi^lBÚmÍ^;ÍM^>00x^^'^
theimèah^hilèïbët&m^
îVnU.ëndûre^Hefcolaèst;' """"'"'?"""- '--?..--.*.-*<?? -v
. stars a'moi^euriôus^^
wfflg^wíalik^
islnee^èd^sfeto^bn^^
rnto^thej^piloe^^
let i it dry-rot'; the sun ;£in.».OT
/roôt^itseifi and
it-: Mr^Bufbáhk'sVtalK'about: the vractus^Baa^
:a/.wh^Mäl'*qu'alifö^^
man.:, .'íHesáysfe-^l^
v¿'?._:'we invites
_to'oúr-^aHefas/.áridír^^
ly teach and"thoroughly;#ohyince-hint'thafcijí
all the marauding animals shall- ?Ije^k^fcví^
but^itiwilï'hc^bêiV^a^
member, of i his Jtribe'íWiií; seej^t^p^È^tp^ïpi
discard some: of %hoséyé¿a^^ti^^mB^S
and > n'eedlesyaM ,'vput'^qM
suit of ;clp.th'es.?ira^
lections) ;:frbm\5^
others are :plr^uce^):whi&;;a^í^sora^élySt^
gpinele^.tovre'rBáS;^
i-audingíanimalsidó^^^^
Becoming nsëfù^ma^
gardens.: It; is: great);çffbrtí ott'^e/partïôf3isJ
the planter produce'ïallc^^is^inésïànîdïi!
when" this ëffprty-is^^^madèV^'u^ëde^ry^ë^^
plant will at {bnce>;b^itíe mor^dpíileHaíd^'f;
pliable, and can; be^à^^'Ied^inÉp^àh^a^
any/useful occüp^qiiyin^hii&^
'Roses;; blackberries^'?Kx^pettí^ffÁú^A
gooseberries can's
thorns as:; "strawberries'. or: apples were by ;";
the same ; "federation. :^fmdv'maiyidSSl':? science'-;
tion. . At::presént,^bbWevei; the*aa^bE3Ípffí:;í::
new fruits ; anftojtowèr&^^fu^
in improving the,' size-, ; abundance^^âni%pjëiy'3' -
;fecfioh^pT>fórn^^^
flowers,;: and the -abundanÉiè'i^dfil^ibïÉ^y.'-ï
news of-. fruits,. otherwise.. the ..thprnSrrWOttfd '-? ?-;;
have been -'èlmui-tèà';lon'g -agp^;"^'-'/¿l^.íí'Jx;^
.- Apropos' of this;; Mrs Búrbant'^ásííeá'i^aé^:^
to bend Over a- blackberry bush-un^fvfnb'ÍKr
the - thorny stems agaijist'?','^^^^xhiek^AJtV¿í;í;

-TjTjtírprjse'the thorns were gone. Out of
thousands "Islands lie has- selected and
tied until now he has a blackberry with
your thorns. . i

Among the many creations the regenerate
educates promises to do more in a material
way or the world than anything he has
yet done, not excepting the potato" that
bears but name, a product of his boyhood
days, This potato yielded him 125 dollars.
It has already added greatly to the nation's

wealth.

Along the Atlantic seaboard, dipping
down, to the GuI of Mexico, and thence
. Tizard again to portions of the fruit-producing

Pacific v coast' States, is a strip of
a land, varying in width and distance from

the sea where fruit trees start into growth
early and are subjected to late spring frosts.
On account of these conditions certain
tints, as the peach nectarine, and plum,
become problematical crops. Mr. Burbank,
who sees far as well as deep, looked at the
seeds of this frost troubled region. He saw
J the conditions, and determined to breed
j the frantic fit the climate, not only sturdy

-'and prolific,- but frost-resistant Now, after
years have elapsed, he has produced fruit
trees of these types that will withstand absolute
freezing in bud and flower. The foli-
age and pears may be stiff with ice; yet
* when the warm sun has come again, the

leaves show no sign of the deadly blight
of the frosfc\,.,_Iow shall we estimate, even
in dollars, what such a feast as this means

to the world? r

But consider another new achievement,
performed not so much as a ( duty to the
world as for the world's delight. Among
all the diverse elements of Mr. Burbank's
nature, none is more conspicuous than his
love for the beautiful. He stood looking at
" a bank of flowers one day when the golden
story of the Californian poppies had turned
the brown mean to a mass of splendid color
and gorgeous, imposing bloom, ''taken in the
masses His quick eye caught sight, of one
poppy, that bore a faint stain of red-a near
Low pinkish line drawn down its satin
chance of gold.

The' single poppy was jealously guarded
Next season's seeds were planted. From
v them came a' brood of poppies, some as yellow
as their forebears, some showing still
greater hints of the crimson. The yellow
ones were destroyed and the others retain
to. and their seeds in turn planted. An in

creasingly large number of reddish ones appeared
the next generation. Day by day
through the years, as the poppies opened to
the sun, they, were challenged with the ut-
messenger"; none was allowed to live which
persisted in wearing its yellow coat

" At -lasting ten years had elapsed, the test
was brought to a successful end, and in
the seasonal 1904 a new floral wonder was
produced a brilliant crimson poppy made
from a-yellow one or other characteristics,
length and shape of petal, size of flower,
and integrity Of all its parts, being left undisturbed
is

. Other members, of the poppy family have
interested Air. Burbank. By crossing the
common' garden pansy which is a short-lived
annual, with the Oriental poppy, a

perennial, he has produced a new race of
poppies combining every desirable quality
of both species in one, and developing an
onerous wholly new forms having enormous
BOB greatly enhanced beauty of colors, m>
proved lasting qualities, and possessed of
perpetual blooming powers. He is now
carrying, on' some remarkable experiments
*?' with these flowers'! He has so far trans-

formed the ordinary poppy that it measures
fully 15 inches across an enormous bloom,
preserving all its original beauty, immensely
enhanced by its size.

'-iThçVproddction of these great blossoms
has been, accompanied by some of the
strangest developments in all this wonder

fill works ,In^ovember last, in a plot of
ground is perhaps, 50 'ft.- squareness apart on
His testing field, at Santa Rosa, for experimentation
in poppies, I saw growing 2,000
poppy, plants, and no two of them were

alike Nothing stranger in plant life ever
before developed. Some of them bore great
quantities of seeds, but not Single flower.
Some,bore,beautiful flowers in great profit
EiGn, but hot' a single seed. Some bore
flowers, arranged in the most fantastic
shapes, as flowers surrounding the and cap

filled and seed "." capsules surrounding the
flowers. Some'' strange- -nea There neither
seeds nor flowers.

,.. Wheate. D. YVriea visited Mr. Burbank
last Summer he was amazed at the sight
'of these poppies. They were not simply
a unlike 'in color, but in habits of growth,

the Various individual plants seeming to re
. effective Jh, 'ferns and foliage" nearly every

oraeiv-öi--plants' known.. Mr, Burbank
astonished Dr. de "Vries by handing him a
poppy stem bearing 56 seed capsules.

-* Taking in his hand a late poppy bloom,
a splendid scarlet flower, though the season
was. fast waning, Mr. Burbank held it, up
and Badges-. - '

"If you wish, I can quarter the seed cap
sure within this flower, and, by poUenising
sections, ' grow from one quarter annual
plants, from another' quarter perennial
plants, from the third quarter crimson pop
p'eSj from the fourth white ones."

, Yet never for an, instant has Mr. Burbank
set claim to rr.ythingNvbut the application
of unalterable laws laws discovered by
him in new relations that are overturning
'sume laws long held by the scientists,
but, laws immutable to the end of the chap-
ter. a - - y e

s The initial work on the poppies began
with the pollen of a single Oriental flower,
Papaver orientals a-perennial, and the seed
of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum,
a short-lived annual. The first generation
showed little variation except in color;
the Second and succeeding ones leading up
to the t marvellous variations already

noted. '"

- Leaving, untold much that is of deep interest
concerning the work, one may not
more than suggest here a few of the other
achievements t>f T_r. Burbank. It must
be borne in mind that he has under way,
investigations which promise greater re-
salts for the beauty and the utility of the
world than anything he has yet done. So far
he has earned on over 2,500 distinct species
investigations, the problems of many of
which are yet unsolved. The following
are among the things already done, in addition
to those which have been under con-
sideration:- ^ !

The "plummet," a combination of the
common American wild plum, a Japanese
plum, and the common apricot, producing
a fruit unknown to the world before, with
a delicious flavor, unlike either of its an'
cessors, and plentiful in nutrients and
beautiful in color. Incidentally, the plum
cot, with the primus berry, disproves the
dictum of scientists that new species can-
not be produced by man.

An amaryllis 10 in. in diameter, maintaining
the beautiful colors of the choicest
small blooms. Rare and beautiful gladioli,
also Mr. Burbank having compelled the
gladiolus to bloom around the entire stalk,
like the hyacinth, a thing never before

known.

Many varieties of plums of rare color
and quality as well as of great vigor, among
them; the Wickson, which is supplanting
other plums and has already added greatly
to national wealth in various parts of the
world.

A numerous family of plums, with no

pits, and only the suggestion of seeds with-
in them, the fruit of which can be cut in
twain with a penknife. Further work to
improve them in size, color, and quality is

now going on.

A chestnut tree, which bears nuts at 18
months of age, and which has borne them
at six months. The tree bears when not
over 3 ft. in height.

Many varieties of Miss of great beauty
and improved character, which will be in
troduced as soon as a sufficient stock can
be produced.

The smallest calls ever known, less than
an inch and a half in diameter, bred down
ward to show that plants can be reduced
as well as enlarged to suit the wishes of

man. '. '

'A" dahlia, bred from the old, ill-smelling

type; up to a flower paving-the order of the
magnolia. in addition the flower itself
has been led to take on new forms of
beauty, some of them strangely like the
Chrysanthemum.

The Shasta daisy, a blossom from 5 to 7
in. in diameter, brought up from the tiny
field daisy, one of the pests of the Eastern

farmer.

Rhubarb, which yields every day in the
year, and of rare quality. The leaves of a
single stem measure 4 ft. in length by 3

ft. in width.

' An improved prune, averaging from four
to six times the size of the French prime,
from which it sprang, and very rich in

sugar.

The "potato," one of the most wonderful
creations, now under way. This may
be called a tomato growing upon a potato.
It produces in abundance a white, fragrant,
succulent, delicious fruit upon the potato
tops, something unlike any fruit ever
known before, and may be eaten cooked or
as a salad, or as other fresh fruits, the
flavor resembling the "poll" berry, of the
Hawaiian Islands.

A blackberry without thorns. Other
thorn-bearing berries and roses are to be
denuded of their thorns as soon as time
can be given to the work.

The Australian star-flower, so improved
that it now bears a beautiful rose-pink
and white blossom, much larger than the
original. it is a new, fragrant, ever-lasting
flower, and can be introduced

in the decoration of ladies' hats and
for other millinery uses, greatly reducing
the cost of artificial flowers.

These are only a few of the new creations
already achieved, or upon which Mr. Bur
bank is engaged. The work already accomplished
or yet to be done covers a field of
life in the vegetable kingdom, rich in beauty

and service to mankind.

But how does Mr. Burbank work his wonder?
Here are two plants one from Australia,
perhaps, the other from Siberia. Each
plant has its characteristics, its life habits,
its structure, its hereditary tendencies-a
life distinct from all others. Each has preserved
its identity a thousand years, perhaps
ten times ten thousand years, not
varying to any great extent through the
long centuries., He takes these two plants,
and gives them the opportunity to unite.
Struggle as each may, with the fervor of ten
thousand years of habit all powerfully upon
it, it cannot overcome the change.

The pollen from one of the flowers has
found its way to the stigma of the other,
borne by the sensitive finger-tips of a man
accustomed to await with patience the out-
come of his projects. A year passes. The
seed from the new plant is planted. From it
may Come a' plant like both of its ancestors,
or like neither, like nothing yet born in the
vegetable life of the world.

And this is what is sought to make it different,
to break up its life tendencies, to
recombine the hereditary influences of its
ancestry. In the breaking-up it may produce
a whole series of monstrosities, the
most strange and grotesque plants that ever

took root in the soil of the earth. Some of
these plants are hideous, and all such are
put to death. For the object is not to produce
abnormality, but a splendid form,

plant which shall have the best characteristics
of both parents, and become a new
and powerful factor in the beauty or the
utility of the race. The next year and
the next there are more seeds and more
plants; and in a few years, so great is the
progression, there irtay be 500,000. Bear
in mind that some of the greatest botanists
of this and other days have carried on
their investigations into plant life, and
made their deductions and formulated their
laws upon a working basis of perhaps a
dozen plants. Mr. Burbank has used as
many as a million plants for a single test,
and he has more than once rejected every
one of the million, save perhaps half a
dozen, or even less. /

' When the great mass of plants in a given
test is ready for the final scrutiny to see
which shall be allowed to live, then
comes the exercise of the most wonderful
faculty of the man. He must go over every
one of these plants, beat ten thousand or
a million, and select from them such as
are fit for use in a continuation of the test.

This he does with marvellous rapidity.
With aids to bring him the plants, he
passes judgment ; upon them with such
rapidity that a hundred thousand may be
decided upon in a single day.

If all of these plants had to be tested
in the usual way, it would cost at least a
million dollars. Each would have to be
set out by itself, covering a considerable
surface of valuable land; each would have
to be cultivated and cared for for four or
five years; each would need fee be grafted.
In a single day this one màn^aecomplishes
what could be reached otherwise only by
years of waiting, and by an enormous attendant
expense, his masterly judgment,
backed by a wonderful intuition, enabling
him to accomplish that which indeed seems

little short of a miracle.

Selection means choosing/or virility, for
fecundity, for beauty; for a resistance to
disease. In one experiment-the production
of the "white blackberry Mr. Burbank
chose one plant out of 65,000. All the
rest were found wanting and were burned
at the stake; from the single bush came
one of his most marvellous creations. Not
another one in the 65,000 had so far
maintained the course laid out for it by
the leader that it could be trusted to itself.

Sometimes it is two plants of the same
species that are used. They and their fellows
are not so thrifty, not so productive,
not so beautiful, as he would have them.
He sees their imperfections; he sees the
possibilities. Here the same process of selection
follows year after year, until, at
last, the old has given way to the new and
a powerful life has replaced a weak one.

It may have been only a common wild
flower at first; now it is a noble bloom. It
may have been a wild native fruit, small,
sour, acrid, distasteful; now it is aVplendid

product, with a delicious flavor, a meat rich

in nutrition, with a rich coloring. It may
have been a tree stunted, slow-growing, virtually
worthless; now It, is a splendid figure
in the forest, growing as much in a decade
as its forebears did in a generations

Or it may be the creation of an entirely
new species. It is the primus berry, rightly
named, a combination of a raspberry and
a blackberry.

Two lines of work are followed:

1. cross-pollination, which includes crossing,
the mingling of strains within a species,
and hybridisation, the breeding together of
members of different species. .

2. Selection, choosing out siren plants as
are best adapted to the purposes of the ex-
perimenter.

Under the first head Mr. Burbank says:
"By crossing different species we can form
more variations and mutations in half a

dozen generations than will be developed by
ordinary variations in a hundred, or even a
thousand, generations."

-What are the instruments of this great
work? In most cases only aiwatch-erystal,
or a small saucer, and the finger tips with
which to take the pollen, which has been
wasted upon the crystal, and place it upon
the waiting stigma.

For all these untold centuries the plant
has been going forward noon an unbroken
line; now it is suddenly disturbed, its life
habits are broken up, it receives the most
powerful shock nature can give. It

vaster than the shock of death, for it is
death swiftly blend into a new life. The
new plant sets out upon its journey, never
to return to the old ways- Thousands of
its kind fall by the way or are ruthlessly
put to death.

An apple eating wager took place at Avignon
non. jules Leclerc are 41 pippins in 70

minutes, Alex Demorest ate 47 in 76

minutes, and Alphonse Boguet managed to
swallow 53 in 80 minutes. All are severely

ill'.

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