Luther Burbank has astonished the world with his achievements in the development of plant varieties. Giant fruits strangely flavored, trees of miraculously rapid growth—these, and hundreds more of economic and beneficial value, came from the wand of this magician of the earth. Thus, Burbank came to be a figure of myth and mystery in his own lifetime.

Firsthand description reveals that Luther Burbank's methods were simple, matter-of-fact, and easy to follow. Working with millions of plants, with bees and hummingbirds for his chief helpers, Burbank opened a new frontier for Americans—one that can never be closed.

As a child on his father's New England farm, young Luther learned the first principles of plant life form the great naturalist Louis Agassiz. As a young man in the West resolved to make the desert blossom and find new things under the California sun, he planted a garden such as never grew before; and soon its products make their grower celebrated all over the world.

Fantastic stories were told at Burbank and his plant farm; nearby neighbors at Santa Rosa were as curious as the scientific observers and newspaper reporters who came from far away. Burbank's shyness, independence of thought, and indifference to public comment, helped the legends about him grow. Many of the stories which flourished were exaggerated, but none was more fascinating than the true story of tireless experiment, frequent failure and tremendous success—here told by a writer and naturalist who had the good fortune to watch the master grower at work.

From the dust jacket