42 LUTHER BURBANK 



If I were to attempt to make a guess it, of 

 course, would be only that as to the number of 

 generations that have elapsed in the history of 

 the prune since the qualities that chiefly charac- 

 terize it were developed, my estimate would be 

 something like this: 



The tendency of the fruit to drop promptly at 

 the right time has been in vogue for perhaps only 

 five or ten generations out of the thousands of 

 generations since plums were brought under 

 cultivation. 



The quality of producing sufficient sugar in 

 the right form for drying may have been devel- 

 oped during perhaps the last twenty-five gen- 

 erations; but it has been brought to its present 

 high precentage during the most recent half 

 dozen generations. 



The condition of the skin which allows it to 

 crack in just the right way has without doubt 

 been cultivated for only a few generations. 



But on the other hand the fairly edible flesh, 

 not having a high sugar content, has been 

 the heritage of the plum for thousands of 

 generations. 



So we can readily understand that the plant 



. developer may secure among many thousands of 



seedlings, nearly all of them producing plums of 



fair quality, perhaps only one that may show the 



