230 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



tion of overbearing may be one for the plant-breeder who recognizes 

 the need of originating varieties that bear enough but not too much. 

 Overbearing is a serious fault as the question of labor in thinning 

 becomes an important item. 



For market plums should be picked before they are fully ripe 

 as when fully ripe they must be used immediately and cannot be 

 shipped any distance. An overripe plum means that the process of 

 decay has already begun. In local markets plums have been observed 

 sent in berry boxes. This might do for the first early but the main 

 crop can be sold in ten-pound grape baskets. Extra fancy fruits could 

 be sold in the tin-edged splint baskets in which California plums are 

 so generally shipped. Only for fancy fruit will such small baskets 

 be profitable. The man who handles his plums as roughly as he 

 would potatoes cannot expect to get a good price. The fruit should 

 be picked by hand and not shaken off the trees. If the latter method 

 is resorted to for plums to be used immediately for plum butter or 

 preserves in general, a sheet should be spread under the tree before 

 shaking. The half-bushel and bushel basket covered with red 

 mosquito bar are used on plums sold by the bushel for preserving. 

 In general, the lower the grade the larger and cheaper is the package 

 used. (S. Dak. E. S. B. 93.) 



PRUNES. 



The term "prune" may be applied to any plum that dries read- 

 ily, but more particularly to plums containing over 12 per cent of 

 sugar, as this is approximately the amount that a good dried plum 

 should contain. Of all the American fruits preserved by the process 

 of evaporation the prune certainly takes first rank. The process of 

 evaporation has for its object primarily to drive off a sufficient amount 

 of moisture to make the fruit keep in such a manner as to leave the 

 fruit soft, pliable and palatable, and with as much of the original 

 color and flavor as possible, and in case of the prune to leave the 

 flesh of a transparent appearance ; a clear yellow in the case of the 

 French prune, and an amber in the case of the Italian. No prune 

 which has not these characteristics has been properly cured. 



The soil types known as sandy (clay and lime) are considered 

 the best for the prune, though pomologists agree that the plum in 

 general is not very particular about the soil in which it grows so long 

 as it is neither too light and limy, nor too wet. In the West thousands 

 of acres are devoted to the raising of prunes alone. The three classes 

 grown commercially are: Italian, Petite (Prune of A gen), and Sil- 

 ver (Coe Golden Drop). Other varieties are classed with one of the 

 three mentioned, according to size and color. Prunes which do not 

 naturally fall into one or another of these classes are not readily 

 salable. 



Prune Kernels. The pitting of prunes is not carried on to such 

 an extent as is the case with peaches arid apricots, this treatment be- 

 ing a relatively new feature. Attention is nevertheless directed to 

 the large amounts of fixed oil and volatile oil which may be produced 

 from these kernels, as well as from those of peaches and apricots, 



