THE SPIRITUAL SIDES OF GARDENING : LUTHER BURBANK,
A GIANT OF GARDENING WHO WAS HAILED AS
AN "AMERICAN SAINT"
Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926) was an American gardener, botanist, horticulturist and a pioneer in agricultural science.
He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank's varied creations included fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables. For example, he developed a spineless cactus (useful for cattle-feed) and the plumcot.
Burbank's most successful strains and varieties include the Shasta daisy, the Fire poppy, the July Elberta peach, the Santa Rosa plum, the Flaming Gold nectarine, the Wickson plum, the Freestone peach, and the Burbank potato. Burbank also bred the white blackberry. A natural sport (genetic variant) of the Burbank potato with russet (reddish-brown) skin later became known as the Russet Burbank potato: this large, brown-skinned, white-fleshed potato has become the world's predominant processing potato.
Life and work : Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Burbank grew up on a farm and received only an elementary education. The thirteenth of 15 children, he enjoyed the plants in his mother's large garden. His father died when he was 21 years old, and Burbank used his small inheritance to buy a 17 acre (6.8 hectares) plot of land near Lunenburg.
Burbank developed the Burbank potato, 1872 to 1874. Burbank sold the rights to the Burbank potato for $150 and used the money to travel to Santa Rosa, California in 1875. Later, a natural sport of Burbank potato with russetted skin was selected and named Russet Burbank potato. Today, the Russet Burbank potato is the most widely cultivated potato in the United States, prized for processing. McDonald's french fries are made exclusively from this cultivar.
In Santa Rosa, Burbank purchased a 4-acre (1.6 hectares) plot of land, and established a greenhouse, nursery, and experimental fields that he used to conduct crossbreeding experiments on plants, inspired by Charles Darwin's The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. (This site is now open to the public as a city park, Luther Burbank Home and Gardens.) Later he purchased an 18 acre plot of land in the nearby town of Sebastopol for more experimental growing called Gold Ridge Farm.
Burbank's creations included:
The "Shasta Daisy" and a total of 91 types of ornamentals.
The (Russet) Burbank potato.
113 plums and prunes
35 fruiting cacti, including the spineless cactus, a great animal feed.
26 types of vegetables.
16 blackberries (including a white blackberry).
13 raspberries.
11 quinces.
11 plumcots.
10 cherries.
10 strawberries.
10 apples.
9 types of grains, grasses, forage.
8 peaches.
6 chestnuts.
5 nectarines.
4 grapes.
4 pears.
3 walnuts.
2 figs.
1 almond.
Burbank was often criticized by scientists of his day because he did not keep the kind of careful records that are the norm in scientific research and because he was mainly interested in getting results rather than in basic research. Jules Janick, Ph.D., Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, writing in the World Book Encyclopedia, 2004 edition, went as far as saying: "Burbank cannot be considered a scientist in the academic sense." However, one can wonder who is more useful to society: The scientist in his ivory tower, or the man who selects and develop over 700 varieties of new food plants?
In 1893 Burbank published a descriptive catalog of some of his best varieties, entitled called New Creations in Fruits and Flowers.
In 1907, Burbank published an "essay on childrearing", called "The Training of the Human Plant". In it, he advocated improved treatment of children and eugenic practices such as keeping the unfit and first cousins from marrying. He himself married twice, to Helen Coleman in 1890, which ended in divorce in 1896; and to Elizabeth Waters in 1916. But he had no children. In mid-March 1926, Burbank suffered a heart attack and became ill with gastrointestinal complications. He died on April 11, 1926, aged 77, and is buried near the greenhouse at the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens.
During his career, Burbank wrote, or co-wrote, several books on his methods and results, including his eight-volume How Plants Are Trained to Work for Man (1921), Harvest of the Years (with Wilbur Hall, 1927), Partner of Nature (1939), and the 12-volume Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Application. New Creations in Fruits and Flowers cover.
Legacy: Burbank's work spurred the passing of the 1930 Plant Patent Act four years after his death. The legislation made it possible to patent new varieties of plants (excluding tuber-propagated plants). In supporting the legislation, Thomas Edison testified before Congress in support of the legislation and said that "This [bill] will, I feel sure, give us many Burbanks." Unfortunately, Hell is often paved with good intentions, and this legislation also gave rise to Monsanto, GMOs and "terminator seeds". Something so revulsive to the unperverted human mind that the mere idea of it would have been enough to make Burbank sick.
At any rate, the Patent Office issued Plant Patents #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #18, #41, #65, #66, #235, #266, #267, #269, #290, #291, and #1041 to Burbank posthumously. And in 1986, Burbank was inducted into the "National Inventors Hall of Fame". Invent Now Hall of Fame Search Inventor Profile
The Luther Burbank Home and Gardens, in downtown Santa Rosa, are now designated as a National Historic Landmark. Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experiment Farm is listed in the National Register of Historic Places a few miles west of Santa Rosa in the town of Sebastopol, California. Gold Ridge Luther Burbank's Experiment Farm
By all accounts, Burbank was a kindly man whose first and foremost goal in life was to help the many. He saw gardens and gardening as the conduit through which people could attain and maintain optimal health. He was very interested in education and often gave both time and money to the local schools.
In fact and as unbelievable as this might seem at first, Paramahansa Yogananda, who introduced "yoga" to the West and is widely recognized as one of the greatest Indian saints of recent history, knew both Burbank and Gandhi well. Yet, it is not to the Mahatma, but to Luther Burbank that he dedicated his great bestseller "Autobiography of a Yogi", hailing him as "An American Saint". Think of it!
Burbank's mystical and spiritual side was completely immersed in Nature and expressed itself through one endeavor: Understanding Nature and working with her through gardens and gardening, so to bring increasingly better plants to fellow human beings, and share with them the tools to emulate his work. If Burbank was a saint, and we have that from quite reliable authority, he was a Gardener saint, and a model for us all to emulate.
His friend and admirer Yogananda wrote in his Autobiography of a Yogi:
"His heart was fathomlessly deep, long acquainted with humility, patience, sacrifice. His little home amid the roses was austerely simple; he knew the worthlessness of luxury, the joy of few possessions. The modesty with which he wore his scientific fame repeatedly reminded me of the trees that bend low with the burden of ripening fruits; it is the barren tree that lifts its head high in an empty boast." (Yogananda, 1946, p. 352)
In a speech given to the First Congregational Church of San Francisco in 1926 a short time before his death, and which can be considered his testament, Burbank said:
"I love humanity, which has been a constant delight to me during all my seventy-seven years of life; and I love flowers, trees, animals, and all the works of Nature as they pass before us in time and space. What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe; and grains of enormously increased productiveness, whose fat kernels are filled with more and better nourishment, a veritable storehouse of perfect food -- new food for all the world's untold millions for all time to come."
Luther Burbank understood we are what we eat, and that the ultimate conduit to maintain or gain back our health is optimal foods from our own gardens. This is the cause he dedicated his entire life to, and his gentle and selfless dedication as well as the way he pursued it was why he was recognized and hailed as "an American Saint" by one of the greatest spiritual authorities of our time.
His life was an unequaled example for us all to study and follow.
BOOKS TO READ:
Harvest of the Years, Luther Burbank, with Wilbur Hall - This is Luther Burbank's autobiography published posthumously after his death in 1926.Kraft, K. Luther Burbank, the Wizard and the Man. New York : Meredith Press, 1967 ASIN: B0006BQE6CYogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. Los Angeles : Self-Realization Fellowship, 1946 ISBN 0-87612-083-4Peter Dreyer: A Gardener Touched With Genius The Life of Luther Burbank, # L. Burbank Home & Gardens; New & expanded edition (January 1993), ISBN 0-9637883-0-2Burbank, Luther. “The Training of the Human Plant.” Century Magazine, May 1907. http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?sid=ee2702066663ae4e729bbb6c9e6f63d9&idno=4765397 ]Pandora, Katherine. "Luther Burbank". American National Biography. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.Burbank, Luther. The Canna and the Calla: and some interesting work with striking results. Paperback ISBN 978-1414702001Burt, Olive W. Luther Burbank, Boy Wizard. Biography published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1948 aimed at intermediate level students.
FIND MORE ABOUT LUTHER BURBANK :
Luther Burbank Home and Gardens official websiteNational Inventors Hall of Fame profileWells Fargo Center for the Arts (formerly the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts)UN report on spineless cactus cultivation in TunisiaLuther Burbank Virtual MuseumAutobiography of a Yogi, by Paramhansa Yogananda, Chapter 38: Luther Burbank -- A Saint Amidst the Roses at www.ananda.orgThe Wisdom of LifeA Rare Crossing: Frida Kahlo and Luther BurbankLuther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Application, a 12-volume monographic series, is available online through the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center.Official website of the Western Sonoma County Historical Society and Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experiment Farm
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