by Jean C. Fisher

Created on: May 19, 2009

LUTHER BURBANK: A Modern Progressive in Victorian Clothing

For many today, the name "Luther Burbank" means little, but it is said that, at one time, his name was more recognizable than that of the President of the United States.

Luther Burbank, horticulturist and plant breeder (1849-1926), was known as "The Plant Wizard" much as his good friend, Thomas Alva Edison, was known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park". Burbank's body of work in grafting and hybridization - spanning some fifty-odd years - was so innovative for its time it has been called the precursor to the modern science of Genetics.

Perhaps the young Luther Burbank was destined for greatness from the beginning. . .

Born the youngest of 13 children in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Burbank's parents were intellectuals whose dinner guests often included prominent professors, writers and scientists of the day. One of his uncles was also the curator of a natural history museum at a nearby university.

Almost from the start a precocious, young Burbank demonstrated considerable ingenuity, originality and inventiveness with a knack for problem solving. When still a child, he designed and built a working prototype of an automatic rowing machine for his row boat utilizing steam power.

According to Burbank himself, the catalyst for his lifelong work with plants came in the form of Charles Darwin's book "Plants and Animals Currently Under Domestication" which he read at a very early age.

Burbank would later tell the story of being ten years old, sitting on a small hill near his home in Massachusetts, watching a long line of freight cars make their way along the railroad tracks when he suddenly envisioned each of the boxcars bursting full with fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables, all engineered by the scientific manipulation of Darwin's theories to create more prolifically-bearing plants that were disease, insect, and drought resistant "with which to feed a hungry world".

In this "Information Age", most of us are well aware of the concept of "world hunger" - mostly through the efforts of such large and far-reaching organizations as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the World Resources and Worldwatch Institutes and the highly-publicized successes of "Farm Aid" and "We Are the World". In 1859, however, the concept of a world food supply was yet to be conceived. Even by today's standards, it would be remarkable for a child to possess

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