Science: Burbank Reports

Out in Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County, Calif., where Pacific breezes make days pleasant and nights chill, for 50 years Naturalist Luther Burbank has been making a bit of desert bloom weirdly yet profitably. Since 1875 he has been on his experiment farm mating pistils to stamens in strange concubinage, getting sometimes a beautiful scion, sometimes a grotesque mongrel, sometimes finding a futile barrenness. Last week Naturalist Burbank was elated, greeted pressmen with news of seven miracles of hybridization in plants. He reported a new camassia, blue tinted, excelling all others in beauty and ability to multiply; a rainbowteosinte, a giant corn that grows eight feet tall and produces 8 to 14 ears a stalk; a giant cactus-flowering zinnia, developed from the familiar plant; a hybrid of the torch lily, the tritoma, which will bloom profusely in cold climates; an even more magnificent Shasta daisy than blooms at present; a new strain of giant asters of breath-taking fluffiness; and eight new gladioli.

Luther Burbank, 76 years old, said to visitors at the year’s close: “I can say that I am satisfied with my year’s work, for I must be satisfied. The year is done, and it has been one of my busiest. I have worked and enjoyed every day of it. But I will go on with the new year.” His recreations are botanizing and music.