Luther Burbank
Luther Burbank Luther Burbank was born the thirteenth of 15 children in Lancaster,Massachusetts on March 7, 1849. He was a sensitive, shy boy with a curiosityabout the outdoors. His cousin, Professor Levi Burbank, took him on longwalks in the woods to study plant life and discuss his interests in biology. He completed his formal education at Lancaster Academy, where hestudied biology, chemistry and physics, but he didn't decide upon a career. Hewanted to study medicine but there was so many children in his family and solittle money, he was forced to go to work. He got a job in a near-by factory asa wood turner and pattern maker for fifty cents a day. He didn't like this workbecause it was indoors, so he decided to become a truck gardener. It was at thistime that Luther first read Charles Darwin's Animals and Plants UnderDomestication. He decided then and there to make plant breeding his life'swork. Although he had no real scientific education, he did have an intensecuriosity about plants and a love of nature. He began simple experiments, and,through trial and error, improved growing methods. These he tested in further
At the time of his death he had more than 3,000 experiments underwayand was growing more than 5,000 distinct botanical species native to manyparts of the world. He picked the two best plants that grew from these seeds and thefollowing year he planted the potatoes of these two plants. . Then when it was warm enough outside, he planted the seeds whichhad already sprouted. Burbank would cross one variety with another, thenchoose the healthiest specimens and destroy all others. In 1893 Burbank published a catalogue, New Creations in Fruit andFlowers which listed about one hundred new plants, flowers, berries and treesthat he produced by scientific combinations. Publication of the cataloguecaused protest. When this new Burbank potato was introduced,Ireland's most important food gained new life and the Irish no longer sufferedfrom a potato shortage. Then the process wouldbe repeated. He received bitter letters and ministers preached againsthim in their churches. o develop new and sturdier vegetables. They granted him$10,000 a year for his work in plant development. His primary concern was the development of new varieties of plants.
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