j New BurbanK Strawberry
Reproduced
From a Direct Color Photograph.
E.xact Size
LUTHER BURBANK says that the
strawberry of today is no further
j advanced than the potato was
forty years ago.
Many varieties are imperfect in blos
som. Others are adapted only to certain
soils and special conditions of culture.
Many are subject to various foliage
diseases.
Some produce only one crop and then
disappear.
Others produce too many "nubbins" or
imperfect berries.
Others arc "home" berries good for
only a few hours after picking lacking
the firmness and durability for shipping
And so on, through a thousand faults,
from producing too much fruit and in
sufficient runners, to producing too many
runners and insufficient fruit.
For more than twenty-five years Mr.
Burbank has been working to breed the
strawberry into a staple plant which will
thrive in almost any soil, and which will
bear luscious fruit practically from frost
to frost.
To do this he has imported strawber
ries from every climate and from every
condition of soil, his aim having been to
cross-breed these and to match the ten
dencies of one parent against those of
another in order to produce a large, de
licious, firm fruit on a vine which is
hardy, long-bearing and easily cared for.
Thus he has crossed berries from cold
f '.
climates with those from warm striv
ing to preserve the hardiness of the one
and the size and llaor of the other.
More than a thousand of such crosses
have been made and among the results
have been many wonderful berries - -some
almost, but not quite, accomplish
ing his ideal.
As a result of last season's work, how
ever (which produced the berries shown
in the direct color photographic repro
duction above), Mr. Burbank expects to
be able to announce soon the production
of a perfect strawberry as well as to tell
the world the methods employed, and the
strawberry facts discovered throughout
the years during which he has made this
research.
