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every great man or woman is at heart a poet and all must listen to the harmonies of nature before they can make translations from her infinite resources through their own ideals into creations of beauty. In the city of santa rosa California, there is a beautiful garden

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that has become a national historic monument to many who come from all over the world to visit here. It is also something of a shrine for it perpetuates the memory of a most remarkable man, Luther Burbank. It was here that he lived and worked the horticultural

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wonders that astounded the world of his time and earned him the name the plant wizard, a title he despised. Mhm. Through his hybridizing and plant schools as he called them, Luther Burbank developed countless varieties of fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables, and flowers that were advanced over anything

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the world had ever before known. Much of America's vast and burgeoning agriculture was given its greatest impetus through the experimentation done by Burbank. Even so at the time of his death, countless of his original wonders were lost through neglect and are no longer in existence. Enigmatically,

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some of Burbank's least important accomplishments, such as spineless cactus, brought him his greatest fame. His acclaim grew to international hero worship. He was held up two Children as a model of virtue, innumerable, great figures on the world stage beat a path to the home and gardens

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of Luther Burbank in santa rosa. Among those who came to pay him homage, where King Albert, the first of Belgium and his queen at times, entire delegations would arrive, including men such as Eugene v. Debs and William Jennings bryan. Such immense fame may have been a

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Lloyd with regret or frustration for Luther Burbank because science which had the most to gain by what he accomplished, repudiated, ridiculed and rejected him because his experiments were unorthodox to scientific concepts, admitting his remarkable horticultural innovations. A question persists as to how he captured the imagination

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of the entire civilized world. In many areas, he became a figure of reverence bordering on worship. His portrait became as familiar as that of any american president. He was the subject of inspired sermons in churches throughout the land. He became a symbol of everything good and

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virtuous until he finally attempted to explain his own religious beliefs with complete innocence. He told the reporter he regarded himself as something of an infidel that in his opinion, jesus christ in his time was also a sort of infidel. His utterance astounded, inflamed and outraged, extreme

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religious elements everywhere like an enraged hive of bees. They swarmed to attack him as john dos passos later wrote, they stung him to death. Mhm Luther Burbank was born on March seven, when California's Gold Rush was just starting. He gave the world more agricultural treasures than

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all of the gold ever taken from California's mines. He died on April 11, 1926, in the quaint and immaculate cottage that is still on the home grounds and garden. He had planted a cedar of Lebanon tree in the front yard of the home in santa rosa.

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He is buried under that tree. I shall be contented if because of me there shall be better fruits and flowers. I love sunshine, blue sky, flowers, mountains, green meadows, sunny brooks, the rainbow that don the evening sunset, but Children above them all Luther Burbank expressed himself

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in many ways. Those close to him say he might have been explaining something of himself when he said, Every great man or woman is a poet at heart, certainly much of what he uttered. His sheer poetry, when the love of truth, for truth's sake has been

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awakened and cultivated thoughts, live and are transmitted into endless forms of beauty and utility. His sister Emma Beeson Burbank identified him poetically in the words of longfellow and nature. The old nurse took the child upon her knee saying, here is a storybook thy father has written

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for the Come wander with me, she said, Into regions yet untried and read. What is still unread in the manuscript of God. It may have been what he alone seemed able to read in that manuscript that gave him his air of mysticism described by a close

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friend of his Judge Hilliard comstock of santa rosa. He was a man who had great personal magnetism. They had a certain the beauty of character and spirit shining from his countenance and his outstanding characteristics were his patience, his love of mankind of his work have Children

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Luther Burbank was the 13th child to be born into the substantial Burbank family in the equally substantial Burbank home in lancaster Massachusetts. The home surroundings were beautiful and early in life he found an appreciation for nature that later reflected in things he wrote or said. Every

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child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, trees to climb wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, brooks to weigh, mm hmm. Burbank became fascinated with growing things. As a young man, he had his own market garden, from which he earned money. A variety of

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early rose potatoes formed part of the crop. He knew that it was rare for potato plants to develop seed from their blossoms, and it was like finding a diamond when he discovered a single potato seed ball on one of the plants. Strangely enough, each tiny seed

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would be capable of producing a new and possibly improved strain of potatoes. Burbank planted the seeds when he harvested the crop. Only a few plants bore potato's worth keeping. They were the beginning of the fabulous Burbank Potato, which in time would produce over 700 million bushels

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and an annual crop of $17 million. Burbank sold his rights to the potatoes to a nurseryman for $150, but it enabled him to buy a ticket out west, where he had always wanted to settle. When Luther Burbank first saw the beautiful countryside surrounding santa rosa. He

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wrote home. I firmly believe that it is the chosen spot of all this earth. I have almost a cry for joy when I look upon the valley from the hillsides. Yeah, no. An interesting parallel is found between Luther Burbank and another phenomenon of his time. Jack

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London, who later became his close friend Jack London, gazing on almost the same scenes, had written of inner emotions that were remarkably similar. Right? When I look out over it all, a lump comes into my throat and I can't find the words to say the things

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that are in my heart, right? Yeah. These two men, Luther Burbank and Jack London, who lived within a few miles of each other in Sonoma County, shared peculiar circumstances of fate. Jack London appeared precisely at the right time for his immense impact on the literary stage.

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His raw, brutal depictions of life as he knew. It, shocked but hypnotized a complacent world and it made him the highest paid writer of his era, Luther Burbank's entrance on the scene of horticulture was just as precisely timed and president shattering nothing like him or what

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he did had ever happened before. In the light of history. He does not rank as the world's greatest scientific horticulturist. But like Jack London, he was a mass producer with London. It was words 1000 a day, every day with Luther Burbank. It was 10 2030 40,000

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experimental grafting plantings cross pollinating often to obtain the one specimen. His uncanny sixth sense told him would be the mutation he wanted the rest burn or destroy them. They didn't matter, mm hmm. His mother, Olive Burbank had come to join him and had bought a house

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and four acres in santa rosa and for a while he used part of her land for his experiments. But he needed more room. The place that he bought just a few blocks from his mother's home and where he lived for the rest of his life soon

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became too small for his needs as well. He found a 16 acre ranch near Sebastopol, a few miles west of Santa Rosa. And this became his world renowned plant school where he not only taught plants how he wanted them to grow, but actually talked to them

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in the process. His fame skyrocketed when a wealthy orchard ist almost dared him to produce 20,000 young prune trees for a new orchard in less than a year, no one including the grower believed he could do it by a new method of seed germination and budding

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young prune trees. Too fast growing almonds stock. He delivered the 20,000 young trees in nine months. There is not a single desirable attribute which lacking in the plant may not be bred into it, Luther Burbank not only believed in that statement, he demonstrated it as he

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developed the sebastopol ranch an ever increasing number of Burbank miracles as they were called began to appear a bewildering outpouring of new and improved ornamental plants and flowers, vines, trees, shrubs, some in shades never before known Many, from 2 to 3 times their previous size. The

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Shasta daisy is almost a new form of plant life as he perfected it today. It is one of the few remaining examples of his work now proposed as our national flower. Mm hmm. His ledger domain with fruits produced over 100 separate varieties of plums, including the

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immense commercial success. The Santa Rosa plum. He brought out new and exotic peaches, apples, cherries, grapes, and odd crosses like the plum Kat. A marriage between a plum and apricot. He made the dubious fruit of the prickly cactus of popular and marketable item, but by all

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odds. His most talked about wonder was spineless cactus, and it really was spineless. It was hailed as a new source of cattle feed to be grown in deserts and other arid places except well. Pretty soon it was found that desert cattle aided up before it ever

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got a chance to really grow, and besides it didn't grow at all well without lots of water, so not everything Luther Burbank attempted was a howling success. His first attempt at marriage was a howling failure. He married Helen Coleman difficulty set in early. It was as

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simple as this. Helen adored social activities and nightlife, Luther liked plant life. They never quite got together Luther Burbank had human failings. He was anything but lavish with his money, and those who knew him well and worked with him. And recall that he could be very

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sharp when he was irritated. Judge Hilliard comstock recalls one personal incident I first met Luther Burbank in the Spring of 1908 when I with my family moved to santa rosa from evanston Illinois, which had been our home for many years. I recall quite distinctly, though it's

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nearly 60 years ago, many of the anecdotes and many of the circumstances and incidents of my very close and intimate association and friendship with him. one thing I recall quite distinctly is his antagonism to people who used liquor or tobacco. It was not so much that

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he was opposed to these things as habits as it was that he would not have anyone working in or around his gardens who impaired their sense of smell or taste in a way that impaired their usefulness in their work. one time I had been aiding him

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in the selection of a particularly ah sweet flavored white strawberry, which he had developed from the wild strawberry. I had a handful of the berries that I had selected which I thought had about the right taste, and he came around and interrogated me about my views,

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and I gave him a couple of them which he tasted, thought they were about right and marked the plants, and when he got through I thought he was through and started to eat the berries I had in my hand, he promptly struck them to the ground

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and he said, we'll have none of that. You came here to taste not to gorge yourself and satisfy your appetite. That really hurt me because I loved Luther Burbank so much and I was a sensitive youth and I didn't like to be scolded. But nevertheless it

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was but an illustration of his positive feelings on a particular subject and he was really a wonderful man to work with. Undoubtedly the happiest phase of his life was his second marriage. He married Elizabeth waters who had been his secretary for many years and she shared

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with him the bright moments of recognition that often came his way. In 1909, the governor of California designated March seven Burbank's birthday arbor day. Mhm And long before the 1920s Santa Rosa's annual rose parade that are still held each year. We're dedicated to Luther Burbank. It

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was a great day for the Burbank's in 1915 when Henry ford thomas alva Edison and harvey Firestone paid a visit on their way to the san Francisco Panama pacific international Exposition and they persuaded Luther to go along with, mm hmm. As he grew older, the public

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became more alert to anything involving Luther Burbank and when sports celebrities such as the galloping ghost of football immortality. Red Grange came to see him, theaters headlined the event in newsreels from coast to coast Burbank 77th birthday celebrated in Santa Rosa was also an event of

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national interest. Later that same year, during an interview with a reporter, he tried to express his religious ideas concerning himself. After considerable thought, he said, he viewed himself as an infidel of a sort and he added that

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in his opinion, jesus christ in his time might also have been considered an infidel. His innocent comments, once they were in print generated a hurricane of accusation, invective vituperation from extreme religious elements overnight. Those who had sung his praises, the loudest hurled him from their graces,

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calling him an agent of satan Luther Burbank did what he could to explain his true doctrines which were not anti religious in any sense, but the storm was raging and if you paid attention to his frail protests, He grew ill and those close to him knew

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that he would soon be leaving them. On the Sunday morning of April 11 in the midst of all the life he had perfected Luther Burbank died. The world mourned and voices cried from everywhere Helen Keller wrote in his garden. Everything seemed aware of a beloved presence

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and even I deaf and blind, I felt like a skylark in his company. His sister Emma Burbank Beeson remembered him with these words. He came March seven, when the buds were preparing to break forth into leaf and branch. He left April 11, 1926, just as the

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flowers in the orchards and Meadowlands were coming out into the sunshine into the glory of the resurrection during his time on earth, Luther Burbank became literally a living legend. He moved in an aura of qualities that while they were intangible were

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the stuff that appealed strongly to human emotions and responses. These were the still unexplained things about Luther Burbank, much more than the things he did that made him almost a figure of reverence throughout the world today. This strange and indefinable element, oven worldliness of reverence still

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exists. Speak the name Luther Burbank to your Children or even too many adults and it is unlikely that they will be able to tell you much if anything of what he did, but you will get from them that feeling that this was a wonderful and very

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unique human being, Children were a continual joy to Luther Burbank. There is poetic continuity to his memory with the thousands of Children who visit the historic monument that contains his home gardens each year, Renee paran in charge of the monuments, knows the location and the history

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of each of the original Burbank plantings. Yeah, return to the old Burbank orchard and ranch at Sebastopol and wander through it a little here and there. If your eyes are keen and your senses in tune, you will see evidences of the things that once flourished under

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the care and the love of the man. Burbank, JB Kyle who still lives in sebastopol California was the first man to take up and pursue some of Luther Burbank's experiments. Speak with this gentle and keenly knowledgeable man and you will know that some of the Burbank,

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mystery and legend linger with him. One of the great high spots in Burbank's life occurred when three giants on the american scene came to his humble home in santa rosa. Very few today will remember what one of Henry ford's original cars looked like. Fewer, possibly will

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know what Edison's first Mazda lamp typified and one would not even know where to look to find one of harvey Firestone's original tires in the world of plants, flowers, trees, you will look very hard and you may very well look in vain for anything that is

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an authentic living replica of something developed by Luther Burbank. But if you look almost anywhere in nature's gardens of beauty, you may rightly guess is that what you see is a little more beautiful, a little more perfect because of the impact of this gentle and mystical

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man. And if you are among the lucky who believe that people can be good as well as great, you may be among those who sense the key to Luther Burbank and you will be better for the experience