PRUNE 



IS.VJ 



PRUNING 



send a formal request to some other stock- 

 holder asking him to vote in his place. This is 

 called voting by proxy. The person who casts 

 the vote is called a proxy, and the paper which 

 authorizes him is also known by the same term. 

 Two of these papers must be drawn up, one 

 for the person represented and one for the 

 proxy. 



Voting by proxy is a very old custom; it 

 originated in the House of Lords in England, 

 but there it came to be very much abused and 

 was finally abolished. During the reign of 

 Charles II, to cite an instance of such abuse, 

 the absence of peers from the meetings had 

 become so flagrant that the Duke of Bucking- 

 ham would frequently arrive at a session with 

 twenty proxies. In order to put a stop to this 

 practice, it was first ruled that no peer could 

 bring more than two proxies, and in 1868 the 

 custom was abolished. 



The use of a proxy is now confined almost 

 entirely to business meetings. In England all 

 creditors in a bankruptcy may vote by proxy. 

 In the United States and Canada it is most 

 commonly used by the small stockholders of 

 large corporations, each of whom has a right 

 to vote but may be unable to attend meet- 

 ings. Occasionally a number of stockholders 

 will authorize some one to represent them for 

 a period of years. Stockholders of national 

 banks may vote by proxy, but no officer, clerk, 

 teller or bookkeeper of the bank may act as 

 proxy. Voting by proxy is absolutely forbid- 

 den at all political elections instituted by law, 

 although an informal voting by proxy is prac- 

 ticed at political conventions. Marriage by 

 proxy in the past has not been unusual, par- 

 ticularly in the case of royalty, but it is rare 

 to-day. Sometimes it happens that a woman 

 is to marry a man in some far distant country ; 

 it is desired that marriage shall take place 

 and neither can travel so far for the ceremony. 

 In such a case the man in due form may au- 

 thorize a friend to act as his proxy, and the 

 marriage can thus be solemnized. A.C. 



PRUNE, proon, a plum which has been dried 

 in the sun. In the western part of America 

 all plums suitable for drying are called prunes 

 while they are still on the trees, just as in 

 some localities cucumbers are called pickles 

 while they are still on the vines. Plums suit- 

 able for drying are those varieties which con- 

 tain more than twelve per cent of sugar. There 

 was a time when the finest dessert prunes were 

 nearly all grown in France, but now California 

 is at least a close second in production for 



commercial uses. The most famous French 

 prunes come from the valley of the Loire; they 

 are a golden yellow, nearly transparent fruit, 

 and are very expertly dried and attractively 

 packed. Spain and Portugal, Germany, Bosnia 

 and Serbia and also South America and Aus- 

 tralia all produce prunes. 



The three states of California, Washington 

 and Oregon now produce more prunes than all 

 the above countries put together, although 

 prune-growing was not introduced into Califor- 

 nia until 1856 and did not at first make rapid 

 progress. Luther Burbank has been successful 

 in developing fine varieties of plums, and is in 

 part responsible for the immense success of 

 this industry in America. Some of the very 

 finest plums are produced in California be- 

 cause the weather in the southern part of the 

 state is more uniform than in other sections, 

 and all of the prunes produced are entirely 

 sundried. Those dried by artificial heat are 

 somewhat inferior. Prunes are nourishing and 

 are so wholesome that the juice of the cooked 

 fruit and the strained pulp may be given to 

 very young babies. As food they are not a 

 great heat producer; their value in this respect 

 is a half greater than that of apples and twice 

 as great as that of peaches. See FOOD, subhead 

 Chemistry of Foods. 



PRUNING, proon' ing. If you are observant 

 you will see that trees having thick foliage 

 often shed leaves through the spring and sum- 

 mer, though the general leaf fall does not come 

 naturally until autumn. The leaves that are 

 cast off early are usually found on the inside of 

 the crown, where they cannot obtain sufficient 

 air or water. This early leaf fall is a natural 

 pruning on the part of the tree, and it is typi- 

 cal of what nurserymen and owners of orchards 

 and gardens are doing all the time on a larger 

 scale. 



Artificial pruning the cutting away of parts 

 of branches, stems, buds, shoots or roots is for 

 the general purpose of improving cultivated 

 plants. A branch broken off by a windstorm 

 is cut away that a new one may grow in its 

 place. Shrubs and trees in parks and landscape 

 gardens are pruned so they will have a more 

 attractive appearance. Under the care of a 

 skilful gardener evergreens assume such fanci- 

 ful shapes as beasts and birds; apple trees are 

 made to grow like vines, and grapevines are 

 transformed into shrubs that grow upright and 

 are self-supporting. 



Transplanted trees and flowering plants have 

 to be pruned at the top until the roots are se- 



