130 LUTHER BURBANK 



excellent in habit, productiveness, and hardiness. 

 As yet only one of them has been sufficiently 

 tested to warrant their introduction. 



TRIBUTE FROM THE SAND CHERRY 



Another native American plum which is as 

 hardy as the Beach plum is Prunus Besseyi, 

 commonly known as the western Sand Cherry. 

 Although it is called a cherry, it is really a plum 

 and has been successfully crossed with the plums, 

 as pointed out in an earlier chapter. It is thor- 

 oughly hardy in the Central and Northern States 

 and is found most often in Minnesota and the 

 Dakotas. 



My work with this variety has not been so ex- 

 tensive as with the Beach plum, but has resulted 

 in the development of one new plum which has 

 been thought worthy of introduction. It was 

 offered in my catalogue of 1911-1912 under the 

 name Epoch, and is described there as follows: 



" 'Epoch' should be one of the hardiest of 

 all known plums, as it is a cross of the western 

 Sand Cherry and the American plum, both 

 being about as near 'Arctic' plums as can be 

 mentioned. 



"The tree is a compact grower, dwarf, with 

 dark brown wood, which always, without fail, 

 produces ropes of fruit, each fruit one and a half 



