LUTHEE BURBANK 73 his mother's potato patch. Who knows what little thing will change a career? Or what accident will transform an ideal? Or what triviality, out of the ordinary, will lead to the dis- covery of a new truth ? The potato seed-ball was a little thing, almost an accident, a triviality; at least, so any practical farmer would say. Away back in the history of the potato, when it had to depend upon its seed for reproduction, every healthy potato plant bore one or more seed-balls. But long- continued cultivation has made unnecessary the bearing of seeds for the preservation of its kind. The potato plant, now so reliant on man for its propagation, has little use for the seed upon which its ancestors had to depend for perpetuation. Luther Burbank saw the seed-ball on his mother's potato patch. If he did not realize its possibilities, at least he scent- ed an adventure. How the youthful experimenter lost his po- tato-ball, how he found it again, and then nearly spoiled the outcome by not knowing how to plant the seed, and the prac- tical lessons in method which he learned even at this early date in his career ' ' are as interesting as a fairy tale. To-day, when more pounds of potatoes are grown than of any other food crop of the world, the increase made -by the help of the Burbank discovery in a single year's crop, and gained without any corresponding increase in capital invest- ed or cost of production, amounts to an astounding number of millions. Another one of Mr. Burbank 's boyhood achievements was to have roasting ears ready for the Pitchburg market two weeks ahead of his neighbors. Let Mr. Burbank himself tell how he accomplished this successful experiment, the forerun- ner of the thousands which were to follow : "The whole secret of my plan was to germinate the com before planting it. Before my neighbors, or I, could begin spring plowing, I obtained fresh stable manure which I mixed with leaf -mould from the woods — about half and half. While this mixture was moist and hot I placed the seed com in it, mixing the whole mass together lightly. Thus I allowed it to stand until the seed had thrown out roots ranging from two to six, or even eight inches in length, while the tops had grown
