The man behind Arbor Day
He was a cheerful boy who loved all nature and his fellow man.
But what he held in the highest esteem was knowledge.
Luther Burbank’s early life did not show much reason for his
outlook. He was the 13th of his parents’ 15 children, and it was
often difficult to provide more than the bare necessities.
The man behind Arbor Day
He was a cheerful boy who loved all nature and his fellow man. But what he held in the highest esteem was knowledge.
Luther Burbank’s early life did not show much reason for his outlook. He was the 13th of his parents’ 15 children, and it was often difficult to provide more than the bare necessities.
Luther was attracted to the philosophy of Charles Darwin about the evolution of forms of life. He began experiments of his own.
His father died while Luther was still in his teens and he took to farming to support his family. His fields yielded better crops than his neighbors did, and he gladly shared his methods with them.
He was in his early 20s when he developed the Burbank Potato, a blight-resistant tuber that helped stabilize the agriculture of Ireland. That unhappy land had seen hundreds of thousands starve to death when the potato crops withered and died year after year in the 1840s.
Burbank sold the rights to his creation for $150, a sum he wanted to get to California and establish a nursery. He fell in love with Santa Rosa and his nursery flourished. He created plants unlike anyone had ever seen. After several years he sold the enterprise and established an experimental farm. For 55 years, Burbank created bigger and better plants. Some had specific purposes, like the spineless cactus that was used to feed cattle, and a thornless blackberry bush. A few, like the Shasta Daisy, were developed for beauty alone.
Burbank became a legend. He gladly showed his farm to visitors and became a friend of many people, including Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. He and sightless Helen Keller established instant rapport. He wrote of her later, “She saw the world through my eyes, and I, hers through her fingers.”
Burbank’s creation of more than 800 fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, grasses and plants made him one of the most widely liked Americans of his time.
That attitude changed overnight. During the Scopes Monkey Trial when a teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution in Tennessee, Burbank wrote, “Those who would legislate against teaching evolution should also legislate against gravity…and should introduce a clause to prevent use of the telescope and microscope and other instruments used for the development of truth.”
His repudiation of Henry Ford’s endorsement of reincarnation brought the deluge. Burbank wrote in January 1926 that he believed that death was the end of life, and termed himself as a non-believer in religion. To millions of Americans, his reputation was hopelessly shattered.
Burbank received thousands of angry letters, some threatening. He tried to answer each without rancor but the strain was too great. He died in April of that year at 77.
In the years following, his countrymen judged him by the wonders he created. Schools and public buildings were named for him, and for more than a century Santa Rosa has put on the annual Luther Burbank Rose Parade.
Of all the honors he received the one that might have pleased him the most was when California established Arbor Day on his birthday, March 7, a day set aside for planting of trees and a perpetuation of life.
