DR. J. R. CARDWELL. 23 



vised digging up the trees to set prunes. I was selling 

 prunes at twelve and one half cents per pound in fifty- 

 pound boxes, faced. Our Italian prunes led the market, 

 and were readily salable at that figure. This was paying 

 fairly well; a legitimate business, so to speak. We were 

 then possessed of the idea that we had a little neck of the 

 woods in western Oregon and Washington the only spot 

 in this great continent that could grow successfully the 

 Italian prune. We were led to think this as they had 

 failed in California, the East, and other localities, and, 

 presumably, they required a heavy clay soil, and a cool, 

 damp climate, and we didn't know of any other such coun- 

 try, and we were growing them successfully, and we had 

 the verdict of the markets and all comers to that effect. 



In 1871 1 secured an experienced top-grafter, started in 

 April and grafted twelve hundred twenty-year-old peach- 

 plums into the Italian prune, putting ten to thirty grafts 

 in a tree. It looked destructive. Orchardists looked wise 

 and said it was an experiment; some thought it would not 

 succeed. I had tried a few trees the year before with my 

 own hands, and was hopeful. It did succeed. Fully ninety- 

 five per cent of the grafts grew; enough so that no further 

 grafting was necessary, while some trimming out was nec- 

 essary. I did not lose a tree this at a cost of ten cents 

 a tree. I trimmed back the new wood annually, and in 

 three years had a good bearing top, which thereafter bore 

 the largest, finest prunes grown in the vicinity. These 

 I wrapped, packed in twenty-pound boxes, and shipped 

 East. They carried well and gave very satisfactory re- 

 turns. I shipped seven cars one season. They averaged 

 me $1.25 per box in the eastern market, leaving a nice 

 profit. Continuously every year after this gratifying result 

 I thus worked over about one thousand trees, until forty- 

 four hundred plum trees were all worked over into Italian 

 prunes, with like success and with a loss not exceeding 



