13 urban k, the WonderWorker
of the Plant World.
Scarcely a decade ago Luthei
Burbank was virtually unknown t<
the world. He was held in derisic t:
l»y his relatives, in pity by his
friends, in scorn by his enemies
lie was denounced by scientific
men as little less than a charlatan
a producer of spectacular effects, a
seeker for the uncanny and abnor
mal, an enemy to all true scientific
progress, a misleading, though pow
erful, prophet of a new order ol
things that could never come tc
pass.
He once accepted an invitation
from a minister to listen to a ser
mon on the woik he was carrying
on, and was treated to an address
denouncing him as a foe to God and
man, one who was interrupting the
well-ordered couise of plant life,
destroying forces and functions long
established and sacred, reducing the
vegetable life of the world to a con
dition at once unnatural and ab
normal.
A little tuntier back in his his
tory, at the period at which he first
attempted to carry out the work of
his life, he was more than once
perilously near starvation in a land
of plenty.
Today Mr. Burbank is the fore
most man in the world in the pro
duction of new and interesting
forms of fruits, trees, flowers, vege
tables, grasses and nuts. He has
carried his investigations far beyond
the point that he had reached when
the minister assailed him. hast
year more than six thousand men,
embracing the very pick and flower
of the scientific life of two hemis
pheres, made the pilgrimage to his
home at Santa Rosa, Cal., 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 demonstration, and to learn
some details of the supreme results
achieved. During the year 30,000
letters were received, coming from
every quarter of the globe, asking
for more light upon his work.
Ilis recognition was tardy. First
came visitors from foreign lauds,
where his experiments were first
appreciated; then seedsmen and
scientists ol his own country, many
of whom came to scotT but stayed
to ;>ray. Later came a certain ptr
fuuclory recognition from bis towns
men. Now, latest ot all, ill some
measure comes recognition from the
people ot his state and his couutry,
and a subvention from the Carnegie
Institution to the amount of $ioo,>
uoo, available in sums of 510,000
each year h r ten years.
Notwithstanding the marvelous
creations which Mr. Burbank has
already accomplished he has new
work under way more wonderful
than anything he has yet a hieved,
and more fruitful of good for the
race, while the work he has pro
jected and begun, but which may
not even be referred to, li s even
greater possibilities.
One of the most marvelous of Mr.
Burbank’s accomplishments is the
transformation of the cactus. For
a period of over ten years he has
worked with the utmost persistence
and skill until at last he has devel
oped a cactus plant which will con
vert the desert into a garden.
He has made the cactus thornless,
taking from its leaves the hard,
woody substance, the spicules, so
dangerous to animal life. More
than this, he has made it adaptable
to any climate. It will thrive on
the hot desert, but it will grow with
marvelous fecundity when irrigated
or planted in a richer soil. It has
j been made so hardy that it will en
UUI\. Hit- LllumiCT), IL ILIcIV UC
I
I
i
grown from the equator to the pule,
or as far north as any vegetation
can he produced. The new plants
preserve their type also, never re
verting, hut always persisting.
One of the more highly developed
plants, grown to gigantic stature in
three years, has over 600 pounds of
nutiitious food for man and beast
upon it, and as you took upon this
one plant and think of the vast
multiplication of it now possible,
you begin to see something of what
is to come to pass in the reclamation
of the waste places of the earth.
The plant also bears a delicious
fruit, with a combination of flavors
suggesting to some a pineapple, to 1
some a melon, to some a peach, to 1
some an apricot, but still wholly
without definition or identification.
It is full of nutrients, too; in fact,
it has been found that the natives
of some southern climes virtually
live upon the fruit of one of the
crude, partly developed cacti, and
maintain a truly Japanese vigor.
Roses, blackberries, raspberries
uu<l gooseberries can also be made
as free trom thorns as strawberries
or apples are, by education and in
dividual selection. Out ol thousands
of plants he has selected and bred
until now he has a black lierry with
out thorns.
Certain Iruits, as the peach, nec
tarine and plum, he has bred to tit
a Irost-troubled climate, and has
prod need trees that will withstand
absolute tiee/mg m bud and flower.
The iohage and petals may tie stiff
with ice; yet when the warm sun
comes they show no blig'it of frost
RECEPTION SAEOON
I s. K. IIKKTKR
W. W. CROCKKTT
WINES,
LIQUORS
AND GOOD
CIGARS
St. Louis
ABC
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The Highest Priced but
the Best Quality.
BILLIARD
AND'l
POOL
ROOMS
l:i-year-old (’row Whiskey — The Only Stock.
Something New — '.Try Our Apricot Cocl-ctoi!
Leaves for Lion Every
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Freighting and Packing
To eincl From All
tlie Creelcts.
Good Teams.
Good Service
THE
HEETER
TANANA, ALASKA
S. E. HEETER, ED FERGUSON,
PROPRIETOR MANAGER
F1KST-CI.ASS
Wines, Liquors and Cigars
After years of effort he has pro
duced a brilliant crimson poppy
from a yellow one. In another in
stance he has developed an enor
mous poppy bloom fully ten inches
across, an enormous flower, pre
serving all its original beauty. In
truth the wonders of his creations
from the poppy alone are almost
endless.
• Among some of the most noted
achievements are the fastest-grow
ing tree in the temperate /.ones of
the world —a walnut which in thir
teen years has grown to six times
the si/e an average walnut would
attain in twenty-eight \ears; the
“plumcot”—a combination of the
wild plum, the Japanese plum and
the apricot, producing a fruit un
like either ot its ancestors; an ama
ryllis ten inches in diameter, main
taining the beautiful colors of the
choicest small blooms; many varie
ties ot plutns of rare color and
quality as well as of great vigor
some w ith no pits in them; a chest
nut tree which bears nuts at eight
een months of age, and which has
Irorue them at six months. Waring
when not mure than three feet in
hight; the “ponrato,’’ now under
way—which produces in abundance
a delicious fruit upon the potato
tops; and vegetables. Units and
flowers in great number tnnuuiish,
sustain and delight the human race.
With nine tenths of the things
credited to him rejected as fabrica
tions, Burbank would still W en
titled to the name of wonder worker
in plant life.
Burbank's mental resources are
shown by an incident of his earlier
career. lie was struggling to make
both ends meet in carrying on a
nursury. A rush order came for
twenty thousand prune trees. It
would take two years and a half to
grow them in the ordinary course
of affairs, but he could get the order
only by turning them out in nine
months. lie put an army of men
to planting 100,000 ahuond seeds.
The almond grows rapidly; in a few
months the young bushes were
ready, the best were selected and
20,000 prune cuttings were grafted
upon them. Today one of the lar
gest prune orchards in the world is
growing and yielding from these
selfsame almond trees.
He Was Firm.
The comptroller of the currency
is an autocrat whose decision over
rides even that of the chief magis
trate of the nation. Some years
ago the then incumbent of the office
refused to sign a warrant for money
which C.eueral Grant thought it
proper to expend.
“That is right,’’ the president
said. “I admire \our firmness.
Where your conscience is concert ed
never permit yourself to be coerced.
You may consider yourself clear in
this affair, for I shall appoint a new
controller tomorrow.” Hxchange.
Some one asked Lincoln how
long a mau’s legs should be. He
replied he had not giveu the subject
any thought, but should »ay they
should be long enough to reach
!i<>ni his body to the ground.
This ytai has fitly-three Sundays.