COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF THE WORK 



foreign countries, they are distinctly threat- 

 ened by Mr. Burbank himself, and this is why 

 it is so very difficult to give any adequate 

 estimate of the commercial value of his new 

 plums and prunes. They are threatened be- 

 cause when his new pitless plum and the 

 pitless prune which will follow are once upon 

 the market, the death -knell of present-day 

 plums and prunes of their class will have 

 been sounded. These new plums and prunes 

 promise to be just as beautiful, just as rich, 

 or richer, just as hardy and prolific, and the 

 place of the pits of former centuries is to be 

 occupied with the meat of the fruit itself. As 

 soon as this is done, many plum and prune 

 orchards in the world will be practically 

 supplanted, and all of them must eventually 

 be made over to suit the new order of things. 

 Day by day, as his splendid plums and 

 prunes make their way among the fruit-grow- 

 ers, they are paying handsomely on the invest- 

 ment, and they will yield their revenues up 

 to the very limit of the date of the appearing 

 of the new plum, and even on beyond, while 

 it is coming into bearing, so that there will 

 be no great and wholesale disaster. But the 



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