Luther Burbank

📖 The Scoop

Volume VII may be called the ?vegetable volume?. In it, Mr. Burbank gives the details of his experiments in gardening, and an outline of his viewpoint, not alone for the benefit of the man who takes a lively springtime interest in this kitchen garden, but for the man, as well, who grows vegetable for the market.Nor is attention directed solely to the commoner forms of garden vegetables, a wide range of hitherto unthought-of food plants being discussed as well. In this volume will also be found a complete history of Mr. Burbank?s work with the potato and a sketch of the improvements, which, for more than forty years, he has been striving to make, together with his suggestions to those who would like to take up the work of bettering this important crop.Luther Burbank was widely known as a botanist and scientist. His fame as an inventor of new fruits, plants and flowers inspired world-wide interest in plant breeding, for which he was recognized by an Act of Congress, among many other honors.Luther Burbank (1849-1926) was an American horticulturist, botanist, and pioneer plant breeder, who developed more than 200 new varieties of plants for which he was recognized by an Act of Congress, among many other honors.Burbank was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and was educated at local schools and at Lancaster Academy. His boyhood was spent on a farm, and at the age of 21 he purchased a plot of land near Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and began his lifework of plant breeding. In 1873 he developed the so-called Burbank potato, a large, hardy variety of potato considered much superior to the small, easily spoiled type then grown. In 1875 Burbank moved to Santa Rosa, California, and established a nursery garden and a greenhouse that were the site of his experiments for the next 50 years. There he developed the edible, thornless Opuntia cactus; several improved varieties of fruits and vegetables; several new strains of roses and many other ornamental and decorative flowers and plants; and a new fruit called the plumcot, which is a cross between the plum and the apricot. At the time of his death he had more than 3000 experiments under way and was growing more than 5000 distinct botanical species native to many parts of the world. His work stimulated worldwide interest in plant breeding.Burbank's primary concern was the development of new varieties of plants. His ability to perform experiments that produced plants with favorable characteristics depended more on his sense of intuition than on strict scientific methodology. However, Burbank was influenced by certain scientific theories, such as the formerly accepted theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics affirmed by Jean de Lamarck and others. Burbank's writings include Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries (12 vol., 1914-15) and How Plants Are Trained to Work for Man (8 vol., 1921).This volume was prepared from the author's original field notes covering more than 100,000 experiments made during forty years devoted to plant improvement.

Genre: Nature / General (fancy, right?)