Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/95

 76 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS Vries, told in story form by the greatest breeder of plants the world has ever known, told not only with a view to plant ap- plication, but to human application as well. ' ' Mr, Burbank's efforts have covered the working out of a hundred thousand definite experiments resulting in complete transformations in practically every sort of plant life : in tree fruits, and in small fruits; in flowers, thousands of them; in grains, vegetables, and in forage crops ; in grasses to grow on our lawns, in shrubs to adorn them ; in shade trees to give us cover from the sun ; in nuts and nut trees that produce valu- able lumber ; in wild mountain plants ; in field plants ; in desert plants; and in plants which can yield us useful substances, either by reason of their chemical content or their fiber in manufacture. He has given us the Spineless Cactus, and tells us how he bred out the spines and made it produce a fruit which is used for canning and is delicious when eaten raw. He has turned a troublesome weed into the beautiful Shasta Daisy ; has made the blackberry white; created the scented calla; made the Stoneless Plum ; speeded the growth of the walnut tree ; pro- duced winter rhubarb, and the Sugar Prune ; taught us the practical application of poUenation ; shown us his method of grafting and budding — and all this without cost or price. He tells the world how he has doubled the productiveness of the cherry; how he has transformed the quince; about his forty years* work in search of a perfect plum; about his plums and prunes without stones and seeds ; and about the way he creat- ed the Plumcot — a cross which man said could never be made. He has created the Thornless Blackberry ; designed a straw- berry to bear the year round ; introduced a new food, the Sun- berry, a product from the wild. He is even changing the poi- sonous barberry into an edible fruit. He has made a plant that bears potatoes below and tomatoes above ; turned green chives pink; shown us how to get the most out of grains; manufactured food for live stock; and told us how we can reclaim the deserts with cactus. He tells us how the Burbank and many other roses were produced; how he accomplished the impossible with the amaryllis; how he changed the pop-