138 LUTHER BURBANK 



quite attained. I am not sure that I should be 

 overpleased if it had been; one does not really 

 wish to reach the end of a trail, leaving nothing 

 to strive for, no unknown territory to explore. 



It is a matter of record that the prune was 

 originally introduced into California by a French 

 sailor named Louis Pellier, who came to San 

 Francisco in 1849 with the first horde of gold 



seekers. 



PRUNES FROM FRANCE 



Failing to make his fortune in the mines, this 

 young man, in association with his brother who 

 had presently joined him, established a nursery 

 and conducted it with a certain measure of suc- 

 cess until 1856 when one of the brothers returned 

 to France to bring back a bride. He brought 

 also some prune cuttings. And these, not- 

 withstanding the long journey by way of the 

 Isthmus, were still alive when California was 

 reached. 



They were immediately grafted upon plum 

 stock, with entire success. 



The most important of the varieties of p"rune 

 thus introduced was the common French prune, 

 sometimes known as the prune d'Agen. The 

 descendants of this stock made up the large prune 

 orchards of California for the ensuing half cen- 

 tury. 



