IDEAL PLUM OR PRUNE 113 



mum or ideal standard as to each and every one 

 of these qualities. The production of a variety 

 that will meet these requisitions remains for the 

 plant improver of the future perhaps of the 

 not distant future. 



Meanwhile it will, I think, be admitted by 

 those best competent to judge that there are 

 some of my hybrid plums, notably, for example, 

 the Wickson, the Formosa, and the Santa Rosa 

 plums, and the Sugar, Standard, and Conquest 

 prunes, that, in their respective fields, make a 

 fair approximation to the ideal standard. There 

 are plums in the orchard that excel all these in 

 some respects, but have not as yet all the qual- 

 ities in combination. 



Building an ideal plant of any 

 kind is like building a house. 

 Each must be planned in accord- 

 ance with a clearly conceived idea. 

 But there is this great difference: 

 in the case of the plant you must 

 wait for nature to supply you 

 with the material with which to 

 build. 



