PLUM AND PRUNE PROFITS 163 



The total wholesale price of the Burbank vari- 

 eties of plums shipped in this single season was 

 not far from one million dollars. 



If individual varieties are under consideration, 

 the plum specifically known as the Burbank ex- 

 cels any other single variety by a large margin; 

 the figures being, for the season of 1912, for the 

 Burbank 116,764 crates, and for its closest com- 

 petitor 98,149, a difference in favor of the Bur- 

 bank of 18,615 crates. Some of my other new 

 plums take the lead. 



If prices are taken into account, the lead of 

 the Burbank becomes still more significant, the 

 highest price per crate for this plum being $1.93, 

 and its average price $1.12. The total revenue 

 from shipments of this single variety of plum 

 was more than $130,000 in 1912. 



And all this, of course, refers to the Burbank 

 plums merely as shipping plums from a single 

 district. It takes no account of prunes, the 

 handling of which constitutes an altogether inde- 

 pendent industry. Nor does it, of course, refer 

 in any way to the shipment of plums from any 

 region except California. Yet the Burbank 

 plums are grown everywhere, and in some re- 

 mote regions as, for example, South Africa, they 

 are raised on the largest commercial scale. The 

 bushmen of Australia are perhaps as familiar 



