CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



Here we are again, doing our main business at the old stand, but 

 knowing how to do it better. Have we anything more to expect? 

 Probably nothing from old varieties, for we have prospected them 

 all from a prune-making point of view, holding for a time to Coe's 

 Golden Drop plum, or its seedling, the Silver prune, and canceling 

 all others as possibly good plums for various uses, but not for prunes. 

 But the "Silver Prune" is now in the discard becauseta light-colored, 

 sulphured prune, is not in large demand. 



Probably our only expectation lies along the line of plant breed- 

 ing, although nothing to supplant the prune d'Agen has yet been 

 attained. The^Giant prune is a large red plum; several Oregon 

 prunes are sirnjy large red plums. The standard of sugar in the 

 prune d'Agen as grown in California is from 15 to 23 per cent of 

 sugar in the fresh juice, according to degree of ripeness and localities 

 in which the fruit is grown. The sugar in Pond's Seedling and in 

 the large red plums just named is less than 10 per cent sometimes 

 very much less. But percentage of sugar in the juice is not the 

 whole story ; there are tissue or flesh characters which are essential 

 also. Mr. Burbank's Sugar prune answers the sugar requirement; 

 it is a free bearer and early ripening variety, and it dries easily 

 though large, and the small dried product thus far made has sold 

 well, but it has not the fine grain nor distinctive flavor of the prune 

 d'Agen, and the pit is large and rough. It becomes a good plum 

 for shipping and possibly for other plum purposes. But Mr. Bur- 

 bank has held the plum family in training, and introduced the 

 Standard prune in 1914. It is large, handsome, dark blue while still 

 firm but has never gained much favor as a shipping plum. As a 

 drying prune it has several defects: it loses too much weight in 

 curing ; its flesh is too coarse ; it must be thoroughly ripened beyond 

 coloring before picking for the trays, and it does not indicate its 

 own maturity by dropping, as the French prune does. 



No substitute for the French prune has manifested equality in 

 flavor, texture of flesh, smallness and smoothness of pit, retention of 

 weight in curing and ease of handling for a cured prune. Public 

 interest has turned from the quest of a larger substitute to the selec- 

 tion of natural variations toward larger size of the French prune 

 itself, as found on bearing trees. Mr. Leonard Coates of Morgan 

 Hill pursued this line for many years and is propagating several 

 notable variations. More recently other propagators have taken 

 up the same line and in 1921 our leading nurserymen are all offering 

 "improved" French prune varieties which seem to indicate that the 

 best prune possible will be a selection from the type which we se- 

 cured from France over sixty-five years ago, though the relative 

 value of those offered are not yet determined. 



POLLINATION OF PLUMS 



The shy bearing of certain plums is due to lack of pollination, 

 either through the self-sterility of the variety or lack of acceptable 

 pollinating agencies. Bearing can be induced in many cases by 

 either planting or grafting-in of effective pollinating varieties. For 



