42 LUTHER BURBANK 



time there are several varieties actually in hand 

 that are of the most admirable quality and yet 

 wholly stoneless. In the ordinary French prune, 

 from three to six per cent of the entire fruit is 

 stone; while in my stoneless prune called the 

 "Conquest" the fragment of stone does not rep- 

 resent more than a thousandth part of the bulk 

 Or weight of the fruit. 



And among the nine or ten hundred varieties 

 of stoneless plums now growing in my orchard, 

 there are sure to be some that will show still 

 further improvement. 



WHY THE TASK WAS DIFFICULT 



The task of producing a stoneless plum had 

 proved very difficult chiefly because it had all 

 along been necessary to bear in mind a number 

 of quite different objective points. 



It was not sufficient to produce a stoneless 

 plum. From the practical standpoint there 

 would be no object in that unless the fruit about 

 the stoneless kernel was of good size and of 

 palatable quality. And, unfortunately, there 

 appeared to be no tendency to correlate stone- 

 lessness with good quality of fruit. 



In point of fact the tendency was quite the 

 other way; and, indeed, this was to be expected 

 in view of the fact that the original partially 



