THE PRUNE 51 



somer than the Green Gage, the standard of 

 excellence at that time. The tree was not re- 

 markably productive, but the variety has been 

 welcomed as a home fruit in several localities of 

 California. It was not considered worthy of 

 general introduction, but a few trees were sold 

 to local growers who were interested in this 

 variety and felt that it met the demands of 

 their locality. 



A seedling of the prune d'Agen which I called 

 Miller, was sold to Leonard Coates of Morgan 

 Hill, California, in November, 1898. This he 

 introduced in 1908 as the "Improved French 

 Prune." Later the name was changed to 

 "Morganhill." 



The introduction of this prune as described by 

 Mr. Coates himself furnishes an illustration of 

 the length of time it usually takes for the public 

 to become accustomed to a new fruit. In a letter 

 Mr. Coates says: 



"We did not attempt a system of advertising 

 in the start, but rather tested it thoroughly for 

 some ten years or so. It is very hard to introduce 

 any new fruit as so many have been put on the 

 market without real merits. Fruit growers, how- 

 ever, appreciate to a considerable extent the 

 value of selecting good varieties of fruit to prop- 

 agate from. It seems that the chief introduc- 



