Identifier: lutherburbankhis04burbuoft (find matches)
Title: Luther Burbank: his methods and discoveries and their practical application. Prepared from his original field notes covering more than 100,000 experiments made during forty years devoted to plant improvement, with the assistance of the Luther Burbank Society and its entire membership, under the editorial direction of John Whitson and Robert John and Henry Smith Williams
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Burbank, Luther, 1849-1926 John, Robert Whitson, John Williams, Henry Smith, 1863-1943 Luther Burbank Society
Subjects: Plant-breeding
Publisher: New York Luther Burbank Press
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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some such improvement in the cherries through combination with the choke cherry, as I produced by hybridizing the peach plum with the Japanese plum. In that event, we shall in all probability have a cherry surpassing any existing one in size (because of the virility that the cross with the wild species has given it), retaining the good qualities of the present Burbank cherries, and in addition being so hardy that it would thrive in any soil and in almost any climate. If the choke cherry should fail to prove a satisfactory parent, there are numerous other wild species from which to choose. The black cherry of the eastern United States (Primus serotina), is a tree that grows from Nova Scotia to Florida and westward to Dakota and Texas. It is of large size, and bears a fruit resembling that of a choke cherry in color and appearance, but of less astringent flavor. Then there is a small red cherry, commonly called the bird cherry (Prunus Pennsyluamca), the fruit of which is sour and astrin-
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ON THE CHERRY gent, but which is not without qualities of virility and hardiness that might make it a valuable hybridizing agent. This is perhaps the hardiest of all cherries. I have seen it growing wild nearly as far north as Hudson Bay, in regions where it is not uncommon for the mercury to fall sixty degrees below zero. The California holly-leaf cherry and the Catalina cherry are species that may be available for the development of other desirable qualities—forit is not in hardiness alone that the best varieties sometimes are found wanting; though the species just named are so far separated biologically and physiologically that it may be impossible to combine them. Many cultivated cherries, for example, are unable to withstand the warm spring rains without serious loss from cracking of the fruit. Sometimes almost an entire crop will thus be ruined. Again many cherries are susceptible to blight. A bulletin issued by the State Commission of Horticulture of California lists more than twenty
Image Caption:
Burbank Cherries
The particular cherries here shown have been shipped twice across continent before this photograph was taken. Note, in addition to the large size of the Burbank cherry, the uniformity of size, and the almost cubical form, making it an ideal cherry for packing. The particular cherry here shown is one that bears the name of Burbank. It was one of the first cherries introduced by Mr. Burbank, and is still one of the best.
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