Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries

Prepared From His Original Field Notes Covering More Than 100,000 Experiments Made During Forty Years Devoted To Plant Improvement

Complete in 12 Volumes

Copyright 1914

Embossed blue hardcovers. All 12 volumes have a black & white photo of Burbank inserted in the front of each cover. Thick paper with deckled edging and top gold gilt edge. No writing and tight bindings. Light shelf wear. A beautiful set.

Each volume has 105 color photographs tipped in, for a total of 1260 photographs. The photos provide an extensive record of Burbank’s work in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol from 1875 to 1914.

The volumes are one of the first uses of color photography and color printing. Since a nationwide search failed to find suitable color printing technology, The Luther Burbank Press set up a photo-chemical laboratory using the process of Lumiere of Paris. The last volume has a section which describes how color photography and color printing is accomplished.

Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries is a 12–volume monographic series documenting Burbank’s methods and discoveries and their practical application, prepared from his original field notes covering more than 100,000 experiments made during forty years devoted to plant improvement. Created with the assistance of the Luther Burbank Society and its entire membership, under the editorial direction of John Whitson and Robert John and Henry Smith Williams.

Burbank (1849–1926) was one of North America’s foremost American plant breeders. He experimented with thousands of plant varieties and developed many new ones, including new varieties of prunes, plums, raspberries, blackberries, apples, peaches, and nectarines. Besides the Burbank potato, he produced new tomato, corn, squash, pea, and asparagus forms; a spineless cactus useful in cattle feeding; and many new flowers, especially lilies and the famous Shasta daisy.