Today is the birthday of Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849- April 11, 1926) who developed more than 800 new varieties of plants and 200 varieties of fruits, and many nuts, grains, grasses and vegetables. He is perhaps best known for developing the Russet Burbank potato which is the most predominant variety used in food processing. He is also the father of the Santa Rosa plum and the July Elberta peach
He grew up on a farm in Massachusetts was the 13th of 15 children and learned much from the plants in his mother's garden. After his dad died when he was 21, he was able to purchase a 17 acre parcel. Here he developed the russet potato, sold the rights for $15o and used the funds to travel to Santa Rosa, California.
On a 4 acre parcel, he soon established a greenhouse, nursery and experimental fields on which he practiced his plant breeding that earned him world-wide fame. He later expanded his research to an 18 acre parcel in nearby Sebastopol.
His objective was to increase the world's food supply through improving the quality of plants
His research on bybridization was aided by grants from the Carnegie Institution and even from Andrew Carnegie himself despite claims that he did not keep records of his research.
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