COMPARISON OF NEW AND ORDINARY VARIETIES 



Typical leaves, fruits and pits of the two varieties are shown above, those of the new variety 

 at the top and the ordinary variety at the bottom. The former are larger and more uniform 

 than the latter. (Fig. 1.) 



fruit grower of Morganhill, Cal., has 

 been studying the problem of securing 

 an improved variety of the French 

 prune for many years. In the course 

 of his experiments he has isolated sev- 

 eral strains which differ from each other 

 in one or more clearly recognizable 

 characteristics. No attempt will be 

 made at this time to discuss these vari- 

 ous types and their relation to the origi- 

 nal variety. This account will be con- 

 fined to a description of the isolation, 

 propagation and testing in an experi- 

 mental orchard, of a strain which origi- 

 nated from a bud variation and which 

 promises to be the larger fruited variety 

 so long sought for by prune producers 

 in California. 



340 



In 1904, in a French prune tree grow- 

 ing in an orchard near Saratoga, Cal., 

 one branch high up in the tree was 

 found bearing very large fruits. There 

 is no question as to its being a true bud 

 variation. Several grafts were secured 

 from this branch and placed in bearing 

 peach trees in order to secure early evi- 

 dence as to whether this variation, or 

 bud sport, could be propagated. The 

 fruits produced by these grafts were 

 found to be identical to those borne by 

 the original branch. The large fruits 

 possessed all of the desirable character- 

 istics of the smaller fruits of the ordi 

 nary French prune and, in addition, 

 possessed the desired improvement in 

 size. 



