Luther Burbank
Born March 7, 1849 - Died April 11, 1926

Selected Quotations from Luther Burbank

During a lifetime devoted to plant breeding, Luther Burbank developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants, including 113 varieties of plums and prunes, 10 commercial varieties of berries, and 50 varieties of lilies.

Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Burbank was brought up on a farm and received only an elementary education. At age 21 he purchased a 17-acre tract near Lunenberg, Massachusetts, and began a 55-year plant breeding career that spanned a lifetime.

In 1871 he developed the Burbank potato, which was introduced in Ireland to help combat the blight epidemic. He sold the rights to the Burbank potato for $150, which he used to travel to Santa Rosa, California. In Santa Rosa, where three of his brothers had already settled, he established a nursery garden, greenhouse, and experimental farms that have become famous throughout the world.

He worked by effecting multiple crosses of foreign and native strains to obtain seedlings, which he grafted onto fully developed plants for rapid assessment of hybrid characteristics.

He carried on his plant hybridization and selection on a huge scale. At any one time he maintained as many as 3,000 experiments involving millions of plants. In his work on plums, he tested about 30,000 new varieties. The Plant Patent Act of 1930 amended U.S. patent law to permit protection of new and distinct varieties of asexually reproduced plants, other than tuber-propagated plants. This legislation resulted from the growing awareness that plant breeders had no financial incentive to enter plant breeding because they could not exercise control over their discoveries. In supporting this legislation, Thomas A. Edison testified:' This (bill) will, I feel sure, give us many Burbanks.'

I remember that the old building was built in 1927 and seemed so old when I went there in the 50's. To think now that it is more than twice as old now is incredible.

 Don Pyle68-2nd row from bottom.  only boy in row. 

Chronicle file   Luther Burbank Middle School, February 1951.

Today we're opening the files on Luther Burbank Middle School at 315 Berry in north Houston.

Not to be confused with the older Luther Burbank Elementary on Tidwell, this particular campus opened in 1949. At the time the school, built at a cost of $2,250,000, was considered the most expensive building in the Houston public school system. That's $20,032,505 in today's dollars.

When the school opened, the Houston Chronicle noted that student Nelda Sparks told school leaders that the students would see to it that the building is protected "so everyone might enjoy it."

Construction, though, was not without some controversy. Earlier in 1949, school and local health officials debated what to do about a garbage dump located next to the campus. The Chronicle said it started when a hole was dug to obtain fill for the school grounds. The construction company that dug the hole bought the property and sold it to someone who leased it to a garbage company.

Local leaders decided to create a "sanitary garbage dump" and accelerate the dumping process. Essentially, the Chronicle said, garbage would be dumped and topped off with dirt and regular sprayings of DDT until the hole was filled.

Overcrowding has been a frequent issue at the school. Built to hold 1,600 students, the school opened with 1,700 students enrolled. By 1959, sewer problems at nearby Fonville Middle led both schools to hold classes at Burbank. Enrollment then ballooned to 2,980 students, forcing some classes to meet in hallways and in a school bus.

For those curious, Luther Burbank was a horticulturist and leader in agricultural science.

Chronicle file   Burbank Middle School, late 1949.

Chronicle file   Close up of above photo, late 1949.

Chronicle file   Luther Burbank Middle School, December 1949.

Chronicle file   From the Nov. 25, 1959, Chronicle: "Teacher Nathan Johnson takes over at the portable blackboard as he instructs a math class in a corridor end at Burbank Junior High School. Crowded conditions at the school have jammed classrooms and forced teachers to hold classes in halls."