CHAPTER XXIII 

 PLUMS AND PRUNES* 



The plums of California are exceptionally fine in appearance and 

 of high quality. Both tree and fruit have thus far escaped the parasites 

 which have wrought greatest injury on the eastern side of the 

 continent. The curculio has never been found here, and the "black 

 knot," though detected in some of the indigenous species of the 

 genus prunus^ has never been observed in our orchards. The tree 

 suffers, it is true, as do most other fruit trees, from various pests and 

 diseases but their work is a light affliction compared with the ravages 

 of the curculio and black knot which Eastern plum growers have to 

 contend against. Because of reduced planting during the last few 

 years, the plum stands second in point of number among the fruit trees 

 of California, for, as noted in Chapter XX, the peach now holds first 

 place. Of the plums, at least four-fifths of the acreage are those 

 varieties designated as prunes. This is, of course, owing to the profita- 

 ble shipping demand for our prune product, while ordinary dried, pitted 

 plums are expensive in production and do not always command good 

 prices. There is, however, a large trade at the East in our fine plums 

 in a fresh state. Some varieties stand shipment well, and are large, 

 handsome and in some cases possessed of unique characters, resulting 

 from Mr. Burbank's work with the Japanese species as will be noted 

 later. Considerable shipments of fresh plums have been made from 

 California to England. 



By choosing varieties ripening in succession, the plum season 

 extends from May to December, thus enabling the California plum 

 grower to strike the Eastern markets both early and late. It is on 

 record also, that second crop plums have ripened. In 1904 Judge Leib, 

 of San Jose, sent to Luther Burbank, on December 1, ripe fruit from 

 a tree which ripened its first crop on July 4, of the same year. 



There is also considerable demand for plums by the canners who 

 do not use, however, the varieties in chief demand for shipping. 



LOCALITIES FOR THE PLUM 



The plum has an exceedingly wide range in California. The trees 

 are thrifty and profitable even from the immediate vicinity of the coast 

 and in coast valleys, where the sea winds and fogs intrude eastward 

 across the great interior valleys, and upwards upon the sides of the 

 Sierra Nevada. In the upper half of the State, at least, wherever there 



*A11 prunes are plums, but all plums are not prunes. A prune is a plum which can be 

 dried without the removal of the pit without fermenting: The result being a fleshy pulp 

 with a high degree of sweetness. All plums which will not do this are not prunes, even 

 though the word may appear in their California common names. 



tFound on primus demissa, in Yosemite Valley and in Coast Range in San Mateo 

 County, by Dr. H. W. Harkness. Report State Board of Horticulture, 1883, pp. 54, 55. 



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