ON THE STONELESS PLUMS AND PRUNES 



A representative of the Oregon Nursery Com- 

 pany, on a visit to my Sebastopol grounds in 1903, 

 was greatly pleased with this variety, and at once 

 purchased it. It has been advertised and grown 

 quite extensively. Its flesh is of such quality as to 

 be chiefly valuable for the making of jam. 



At that time it was the best stoneless plum in 

 existence. But its chief merit was that it was the 

 forerunner of a race of stoneless plums and prunes 

 which will in time be grown wherever these fruits 

 are raised. 



THE STONELESS PRUNE 



The next stoneless variety to be introduced was 

 the prune named the Conquest, with which we 

 have already made acquaintance. It will be re- 

 called that this is one of the quartette of best 

 prunes described in the preceding chapter. 



From three per cent, to six per cent, of the bulk 

 of the French prune is stone. The specks of stone 

 that remain in the Conquest do not constitute more 

 than one-thousandth part of the fruit, which is 

 thus edible practically without waste. 



The Conquest was offered in my catalog of 

 1911-12 with the following description: 



"There has been known for several hundred 

 years a wild plum, an unproductive, thorny bush, 

 which bore insignificant, acid, bitter, wild berry- 

 like fruits with only half or two-thirds of a stone. 



[157] 



