THE EFFORT TO GET A PERFECT PRUNE 275 



surely. Because of the small average size of the prunes of Pellier's 

 introduction, they christened that variety "petite prune d'Agen," which 

 was subsequently corrupted into "petty prune" a free translation and 

 a mispronunciation at the same time, for a prune which seemed to be 

 too small and inferior. The people must have something large, and 

 propagators offered trees of the "gros prune d'Agen," or the "Hun- 

 garian prune." It was a double misnomer, because Europe does not 

 have any "gros prune d'Agen" and the variety did not come from either 

 France or Hungary, but was the old large light red, English plum, 

 properly called Pond's Seedling, re-christened in California to meet a 

 long-felt want. But it did not meet such a want; it would not dry 

 sweet nor fleshy, but became merely a skin and pit, with a sour streak 

 between. Still the question persisted : Have we the true French prune ? 

 It was definitely settled by the late W. B. West of Stockton, who visited 

 France in 1878, and after close examination of the trees, announced 

 that the variety grown in California was really the prune d'Agen, and 

 that we had made no mistake so far as getting the main standard 

 variety of French prune was concerned. 



But still we needed a variety which would run more to large sizes, 

 and how to get it, with sweetness and flesh, characters which would 

 resemble the best French product, was, and even now is, still a question. 

 One of the early introductions to meet this end is now generally known 

 as Robe de Sergeant. Here again confusion attends the name. Robe 

 de Sergeant is one of the synonyms of prune d'Agen, and yet the fruit 

 we secured was different. Much discussion was given to the elucida- 

 tion of this problem, and the conclusion seemed to be that the variety 

 is grown in France, but in another district, and is generally considered 

 inferior to the prune d'Agen. Still it runs larger, and has sold well, 

 even though of distinctly different quality, and would probably have 

 cut a much larger figure in California prune production if it had shown 

 itself to be more free and regular in bearing. Next came the "prune 

 d'ente, or Imperial epineuse," introduced at about the same time by 

 John Rock and Felix Gillet, which has been quite widely planted, but 

 because of shy bearing, especially when attacked by the thrips, and 

 because of the difficulty in drying such a large prune, this variety, of 

 which so much was expected, has fallen into disfavor for the low lands 

 of the Santa Clara Valley, though on the mountains west of this valley 

 and in the prune valleys north of the Bay of San Francisco it has 

 proved very popular and profitable when planted on uplands. 



Other introductions made much earlier, like the German and Italian, 

 also fell out of the race very early, for shy bearing and for different 

 flesh characters. Although the latter leads in Oregon and other States 

 north of us, it is out of California calculations. The conclusion of the 

 whole matter now is that we have never secured from abroad a better 

 than the one which came fifty years ago the true prune d'Agen. We 

 have learned to grow it better, to seek places where it grows larger 

 and in full quality ; to use irrigation when it is needed by the tree to do 

 its best ; to guard against overbearing by reducing the amount of bear- 

 ing wood and excessive branching ; to strengthen the soil by fertiliza- 

 tion, and to grade the fruit into sizes which commend themselves to 



