Dessert Prunes. 301 



I claim, and I have given my reasons for it before, tliat it is impossible to 

 make a dessert prune — at least one equal to the imported prune, with sun-dried 

 fruit, and that only through driers and evaporators can prunes be cured as 

 dessert prunes, since heat to a high degree is required to develop the natural 

 .iuices of the fruit, curing it soft cd (".uctile, as all prunes to be eaten out of 

 hand should be. 



For some reason or another the people in California seem to be rather 

 prejudiced on this feature of the prune question. For instance, the California 

 Fruit Growers' Convention that met in Santa Cruz on November 18, 1890, had 

 this very question under discussion, a few members justly claiming that there 

 was an excellent but special market for the dessert prune iu America ; that we 

 should go for it, and that it would be best to prepare such portion of the crop 

 as is to compete with the French in the French method. The majority of the 

 convention did not see it in that light, and sided with the author of an essay 

 on the prune read in that convention, in which the writer thereof expressed 

 his opinion on the subject as follows : "The foreign secret of preserving and 

 packing prunes is practically unknown to us, and they may keep it if they 

 wish, as we do not need or care to know what it is." Finally the convention, 

 influenced by leading prune growers there present, passed the following curious 

 resolution about the prune : "That America wanted only the stewed prune 

 and there was no use going into the subject of another." In other words, that 

 "sass" was good enough for the American people : that the French had a 

 secret of their own. of which we were ignorant, in preparing those splendid 

 dessert prunes of theirs, but that we didn't care for it, and therefore it was 

 of no use to bother about other than stewing prunes. Now, to remain behind 

 the aforesaid convention's doctrines, a prominent horticultural paper in San 

 Francisco promulgated the following : "The American people don't want prunes 

 to eat out of hand — they prefer peanuts ; but they want 'sass' — millions of it." 

 Now, are we to abide by resolutions of a prejudiced convention and the edict 

 of a prejudiced editor, and give up the idea of preparing on the Pacific Coast 

 prunes to be eaten out of hand? What have you, prune growers of the North- 

 west, to say about it ? Since you have to cure your prunes in . driers and 

 evaporators, is it not worth while for you to try your hand at it and find out 

 what you can do in that line? 



I say that such ideas as enumerated by that California convention are 

 unAmerican, and do injustice to American spirit and enterprise. I claim that 

 if the American people are given soft, nicely-flavored, well-prepared dessert 

 prunes, as they know what is good as well as any people on earth, they will 

 buy them as quick as they do the imported article ; but if the same American 

 people is given to eat out of hand prunes that rattle or ave hard, are an insipid 

 sweet with little flavor, who will blame this same American people for kicking 

 and falling back on dates and figs, or even peanuts? 



California prune growers may admit that to this day they have been unable 

 to produce dessert prunes to be eaten out of hand ; they may think the French 

 have a secret of their own in preparing such prunes, but they must not come 

 out and try to palliate their ignorance by advancing the silly assertion that 

 the American people do not care for prunes to be eaten out of hand, and will 

 rather have "sass" at dinner, "sass" at supper and "sass" all the time, and 

 that "sass" and peanuts are the beau ideal of the American people in all that 

 is good and palatable. 



Several years ago, in a paper addressed to the Northwest Fruit Growers' 

 Convention, then in session in Portland, which arrived too late to be read at 

 that convention, I discussed this question. Since then a new prune has been 

 placed upon the market which has attracted a great deal of attention in the 

 Northwest. I refer to Mr. Burbank's late creation, the Sugar prune. Further. 

 the Clairac Mammoth, introduced in this country by myself years ago. has 

 fruited in Oregon and must have given some results there by this time as to 

 its superiority over other prunes. I thought, therefore, I would try again 



