Luther Burbank

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Luther Burbank (around 1902)
Title page of Burbank's New Creation in Fruit and Flowers , 1893

Luther Burbank (born March 7, 1849 in Lancaster , Massachusetts , † April 11, 1926 in Santa Rosa , California ) was an American plant breeder who bred several hundred new fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Burbank ".

Live and act

Luther Burbank was born on March 7, 1849 on a farm in the village of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, USA. From a young age he showed great interest in both nature and technology. These interests were promoted by his uncle, a department head in a Boston museum, and his friend, the Swiss-born American naturalist Louis Agassiz . Under the impression of Charles Darwin's Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication , Burbank set itself the task of selecting better plants and developing new varieties by crossing them. Burban's first commercial success came more or less by chance through selection: in 1871 he found a potato fruit and sown the 23 seeds it contained. One of the plants was very productive, with large, firm potatoes. He sold the rights to the potato for $ 150 to pay for a move to California in 1875. In Santa Rosa, where three of his brothers had already settled, he founded a tree nursery with a greenhouse and experimental areas. He was very popular in his day and a 'star' in botany and plant breeding. He was considered a "magician" in the field of plants. Many famous personalities of his time, such as Thomas Alva Edison , visited him and his farm. Even today the verb “to burbank” means something like changing and improving plants. The “Burbank” potato variety is one of the most important varieties on the US market. Luther Burbank never made a secret of his freethinking views. But a newspaper interview in 1926 in which he explicitly stated that he did not believe in an immortal soul led to a worldwide outcry. Burbank got some approval but was also inundated with hate mail. His friends claimed that the grief and confrontation with these religious zealots resulted in his rapid physical decline and premature death for his condition only months earlier. He worked massively in parallel and on a large scale. To create a new variety, he carried out dozens of crosses, some with plants that he had sent from all over the world. Usually up to 3000 experiments with several million plants ran in parallel. While working on plums, he tested around 30,000 new varieties.

Criticism and Effect

Burbank's work and success led to the introduction of a law on the patentability of plant varieties in 1930. Up until then there was no protection for breeders from others multiplying and selling their varieties.

Others

A separate chapter in the autobiography of a yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda is entitled Luther Burbank, A Saint Amid Roses. The yogi got to know the researcher in California before 1924 and they both appreciate each other very much.

Luther Burbank was an active Freemason . The Santa Rosa Luther Burbank Lodge No. 57 was named after him.

Works (selection)

  • The Training of the Human Plant . New York: The Century Co. 1907; Originally published in 1906
  • Harvest of the Years . 332 S. Kessinger Publishing 2003
  • How Plants Are Trained to Work for Man. University Press of the Pacific 2001
    • Flowers , 488 pp.
    • Fruit Improvement , 456 pp.
    • Gardening , 456 pp.
    • Grafting and Budding , 456 pp.
    • Plant Breeding , 456 pp.
    • Small Fruits , 488 pp.
    • Useful Plants , 456 pp.
    • Trees, Biography, Index , 520 pp.

literature

  • John Whitson, Robert John, Henry Smith Williams: Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries and their Practical Application , 12 volumes, Luther Burbank Press, 1914
  • Luther Burbank, Wilbur Hall: Harvest of life , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart Berlin, 1929
  • Emma Burbank-Beeson, Lillian McLean-Waldo: Stories of Luther Burbank and His Plant School , 228 S- University Press of the Pacific 2002
  • Peter Dreyer: A Gardener Touched With Genius: The Life of Luther Burbank , 444 S. University of California Press 1985
  • WS Harwood: New Creations in Plant Life An Authoritative Account of the Life and Work of Luther Burbank (MacMillan's Standard Library) , 548 p. University Press of the Pacific 2001
  • WL Howard: Luther Burbank's Plant Contributions: Bulletin 691 March, 1945 , 116 S. University Press of the Pacific 2000
  • David Starr Jordan, Vernon L. Kellogg: The Scientific Aspects of Luther Burbank's Work , 132 S. University Press of the Pacific 2003

Web links

Commons : Luther Burbank  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1946 ISBN 0-87612-083-4
  2. ↑ Santa Rosa Luther Burbank 57. In: www.santarosamasons.com. Retrieved September 13, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Burbank, Luther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American plant breeder
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Lancaster , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1926
Place of death Santa Rosa , California