LUTHER BURBANK 



Wherever a finger touches the plum a mark is 

 left, and since fruits, at best, must receive much 

 handling from the orchard to the ultimate con- 

 sumer, the plum is likely to lose its charm long 

 before its real freshness or flavor has begun to 

 depreciate. 



With the plumcots, however, the velvety bloom 

 remains through growing, picking, sorting, ship- 

 ping, handling and sale. Which means, of course, 

 that the grower, the shipper, and the dealer receive 

 a better profit, and the consumer pays the extra 

 cost with cheerfulness, because appearance, after 

 all, is nearly as valuable a point in a fruit as size, 

 flavor or sweetness. 



This one, unplanned, unexpected improvement 

 in the plumcot increases the earning capacity of 

 the fruit by more than $100.00 per acre over what 

 could be earned if plumcots had an evanescent 

 bloom like their parent plums. 



Which is simply another evidence of the 

 importance, in plant improvement (and else- 

 where) of things which, at first, we are too apt to 

 regard as trifles. 



It is the seeming trifles, after all, which appear 

 to have the greatest effect on prices and profits. 

 Of the two tins of asparagus shown here, one 

 commands more than twice the retail price of the 

 other, and brings considerably more than double 



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