A BACKWARD GLANCE 281 



at least into the environment of the California 

 plums. 



The railroad became a factor in plum im- 

 provement by bringing millions of plum-hungry 

 Easterners within reach by affording quick and 

 economical shipping facilities where there had 

 been no shipping facilities before. 



Much as the time of transcontinental travel 

 was reduced, the garden plum could not with- 

 stand the journey. With an eager market as an 

 incentive, however, made possible through the 

 railroad, we began to select plums for shipment, 

 until the plum graduated from its garden en- 

 vironment and became the basis of a great thriv- 

 ing and constantly increasing industry. The 

 railroad, by bringing customers within reach of 

 those who had plums which would stand ship- 

 ment, and charging as much to ship poor plums 

 as good plums, encouraged selection not only for 

 shipping plums, but toward a better and better 

 quality of fruit which doubtless, in the absence 

 of the market which the railroad provided, would 

 never have been produced. 



Thus we see three important stages in the 

 transformation of the plum: 



First the wild era. 



Second the garden era. 



Third the orchard and railroad era. 



