12 LUTHER BURBANK 



great world industry. At the moment, how- 

 ever, we are chiefly concerned with the plums 

 in general rather than with this particular 

 race. 



There remain the American plums that is to 

 say the plums that were found growing in Amer- 

 ica at the time of European discovery. 



There are several quite distinct species of 

 these indigenous plums. They grow far to the 

 north, and perhaps their most important char- 

 acteristic is their hardiness. Some of them re- 

 sist the scorching heat of tropical America; 

 others thrive and bear in the short seasons of the 

 snowy north. With hardiness of tree has been 

 developed a strain of productiveness. Various 

 wild plums often cover the ground in the fall 

 with layers of ripened fruit. 



Notwithstanding this, however, the crop is 

 uncertain, some of the thriftiest trees proving 

 unproductive in certain seasons, and the fruit is 

 always inferior in size. 



Many of the American plums are of fine 

 quality, even in the wild state. Yet their faults 

 are almost as numerous as their virtues. The 

 trees are generally small, not usually large 

 enough to make good commercial orchard trees. 

 In form, too, the trees are defective. And the 

 fruit, notwithstanding its excellent flavor, is 



