36 LUTHER BURBANK 



a series of fragmentary plum stones that had been 

 placed before him, and added: 



"To make a stone grow smaller was certainly 

 a notable feat. How did you manage it?" 



This is a question that has been asked more 

 often, in connection with the stoneless plum, than 

 in the case of almost any other of my plant pro- 

 ductions. For a plum which looks on the outside 

 precisely like any other, but which is found to be 

 stoneless, never fails to excite surprise. 



Even visitors who know what to expect, when 

 asked to bite through one of these specimens, can 

 seldom refrain from exclamations of wonder 

 when the teeth go right through the fruit as read- 

 ily as they would through a strawberry. 



Many persons are not greatly interested in the 

 daisy that combines four specific strains, because 

 they know nothing of the difficulty of making 

 such a union, and are quite unmoved by the 

 spectacle of a white blackberry or a fragrant 

 calla, because they have seen white fruits before, 

 and because fragrant flowers are rather the rule 

 than the exception. But no one ever saw an 

 edible stone fruit without a stone until one was 

 produced here on my farm. 



So "How did you do it?" is the universal 

 question of laymen and scientific botanists alike 

 on seeing this really remarkable fruit. 



