LUTHER BURBANK 



For the most part the consumers of the large 

 cities do not know that the big, luscious plums that 

 they purchase in June and July are of the same 

 varieties sold in the dried state as prunes. 



The European plums have been used in the 

 production of eight of my introduced prunes and 

 have contributed to these the characters neces- 

 sary for drying and shipping. 



The European plums produce new forms read- 

 ily from seed, so that it is scarcely necessary to 

 cross them with other species to obtain seedlings 

 with distinct new characters. Furthermore, it is 

 difficult to make productive varieties when 

 crossed with other species. My experience has 

 been that they do not cross readily with the east- 

 ern or Asiatic plums, Prunus tri flora, Primus 

 simomi, and Primus lomentosa, nor very readily 

 with any of the native American plums. 



On the other hand, the common European 

 plum crosses readily with the French species, 

 Prunus cerasifera, the Cherry plum or myrobalan, 

 often producing most valuable new varieties. 



This French Cherry plum is a small, slender 

 tree. It is usually quite productive, but no seed- 

 lings of large size or superior quality have ever 

 been produced directly from it, and the fruit of 

 its seedling is not only lacking in quality but in 

 size and firmness of flesh. 



[220] 



