STONELESS PRUNES 89 



the forerunner of a race of stoneless plums and 

 prunes which will in time be grown wherever 

 these fruits are raised. 



THE STONELESS PRUNE 



The next stoneless variety to be introduced 

 was the prune named the Conquest, with which 

 we have already made acquaintance. It will be 

 recalled that this is one of the quartet of best 

 prunes described in the preceding chapter. 



From 3 per cent to 6 per cent of the bulk 

 of the French prune is stone. The specks of 

 stone that remain in the Conquest do not 

 constitute more than one-thousandth part of 

 the fruit, which is thus edible practically with- 

 out waste. 



The Conquest was offered in my catalogue of 

 1911-1912 with the following description: 



"There has been known for several hundred 

 years a wild plum, an unproductive, thorny bush, 

 which bore insignificant, acid, bitter, wild berry- 

 like fruits with only half or two-thirds of a stone. 

 Years ago it was hunted up in Europe with the 

 plan in view of producing really valuable stone- 

 less plums and prunes. The labor and expense 

 incurred in these experiments have been enor- 

 mous, but among the many thousand varieties, 

 one really good stoneless prune was produced 



