LUTHER BURBANK 



Even a freestone fruit does not start as a 

 freestone, but the flesh tends to leave the stone as 

 the fruit approaches maturity, very much as a leaf 

 ripens away from its supporting stem in the fall 

 when it has performed its annual function, or the 

 fruit parts from the tree when it is fully ripe. The 

 flesh parts from the stone by a natural process. 

 This leaves the stone either "free" or partially free. 



Some individual trees, among a lot of seedlings 

 chestnuts in particular will hold their leaves 

 persistently all winter (this persistence is espe- 

 cially common with crossbred chestnuts) even 

 when thoroughly dead and dried, giving an untidy 

 appearance to the tree, while the leaves of other 

 seedlings fall at once and leave the branches clean 

 and free. 



This is a similar process to the parting of the 

 flesh from the pit in fruits, both being ripening 

 processes. 



There is every gradation between the complete 

 attachment we call "clingstone" and the "free- 

 stone" condition. In some fruits there is a single 

 point of attachment; in others the flesh adheres 

 over a part of the surface while the remainder 

 may be wholly free from the stone. 



There is also another form of partial separa- 

 tion found in some fruits where the flesh clings 

 tenaciously to the stone until fully ripe, when it 



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