280 LUTHER BUKBANK 



takes very little meat and very little in the way 

 of attractive appearance to accomplish this pur- 

 pose; and besides, the wild plum has to put so 

 much of its vitality into stone, in order to pro- 

 tect the seed within from the sharp teeth of the 

 animals which carry it away, that it has little 

 energy and no reasonable object left for devot- 

 ing itself to still further enhanced beauty and 

 flavor. 



Now, take the same wild plum after it has 

 been brought under cultivation and as it grows 

 in the average garden and you will find a 

 transformation — less stone, more meat, better 

 flavor, finer aroma, more regular shape, brighter 

 colors. 



This, however, represents but the first stage in 

 the progress of the plum; with all this improve- 

 ment the garden plum still may not be useful 

 for any commercial purpose, because people 

 with plum trees in their orchards are likely to 

 eat the fruit off the tree, or to give it to their 

 neighbors, or to cook and preserve it as soon as 

 ripe. So even the cultivated garden plum may 

 be perfectly satisfactory for its purpose without 

 having those keeping qualities necessary to a 

 commercial fruit. 



And this is the point at which the Union 

 Pacific Railroad entered into its environment — 



