LUTHER BURBANK 



and if possible a free stone overlooking for the 

 moment the question of entire stonelessness which 

 will doubtless be required of the prune of the 

 future. 



Again, the trade demands a glossy black prune, 

 for owing, perhaps, to the fact that the French 

 prunes, especially those cured in the smoke, are 

 black the average purchaser is prejudiced against 

 the prune of lighter color even though it be of 

 better quality. 



When we consider how many of these traits 

 are different from those required in the ordinary 

 plum, and hence have been developed in recent 

 times under conditions of artificial selection, it will 

 be obvious how largely the task of the prune de- 

 veloper must be carried out in opposition to the 

 main stream of heredity; and it will not seem 

 strange that forty years has proved none too long 

 a time in which to develop the perfect prune. 



If I were to attempt to make a guess it, of 

 course, would be only that as to the number of 

 generations that have elapsed in the history of the 

 prune since the qualities that chiefly characterize 

 it were developed, my estimate would be some- 

 thing like this: 



The tendency of the fruit to drop promptly at 

 the right time has been in vogue for perhaps only 

 five or ten generations out of the thousands of 



[96] 



