Luther Burbank's Opinion.
“Do you think that whisky and tobacco impair the faculty to work?” Mr. Burbank was asked recently, and he replied: “If I answered your question simply by saying that I never use tobacco and alcohol in any form, and very rarely coffee or tea, you might say that was a personal preference and proved nothing. But I can prove to you most conclusively that even the mild use of these things is incompatible with work requiring accurate attention and definite concentration. To assist me in my work of budding, work that is as accurate and as exacting as watchmaking, I have a force of twenty men. I discharge from this force at the first show of incompetency. Sometime ago my foreman asked me if I took pains to inquire into the personal habits of my men. On being answered in the negative, he surprised me by saying that the men I found unable to do the delicate work of budding invariably turned out to be smokers and drinkers. These men, while able to do the rough work of farming, call budding and delicate work ‘put15tering,’ and have to give it up owing to an inability to concentrate their nerve force. Even men who smoke one cigar a day I can not entrust with some of my delicate work. Cigarets are even more damaging than cigars and their use by young boys is little short of criminal.”