CHAPTER XXIII 

 PLUMS AND PRUNES* 



The plums of California* are exceptionally fine in appearance 

 and of high quality. Both tree and fruit have thus far escaped 

 the parasites which have wrought greatest injury on the eastern 

 side of the continent. The curculio has never been found here, 

 and the "black knot," though detected in some of the indigenous 

 species of the genus prunus/\- has never been observed in our 

 orchards. The tree suffers, it is true, as do most other fruit trees, 

 from various pests and diseases but their work is a light affliction 

 compared with the ravages of the curculio and black knot which 

 Eastern plum growers have to contend against. Because of reduced 

 planting during the last few years, the plum stands second in point 

 of number among the fruit trees of California, for, as noted in 

 Chapter XX, the peach now holds first place. Of the plums, at 

 least four-fifths are those varieties designated as prunes. This is, 

 of course, owing to the profitable shipping demand for our prune 

 product, while ordinary dried, pitted plums are expensive in pro- 

 duction and do not always command good prices. There is, how- 

 ever, a large trade at the East in our fine plums in a fresh state. 

 Some varieties stand shipment well, and are large, handsome and 

 in some cases possessed of unique characters, resulting from Mr. 

 Burbank's work with the Japanese species as will be noted later. 

 Considerable shipments of fresh plums have been made from Cal- 

 ifornia to England. The maximum in plum profits is much like 

 that with other fruits, for L. W. Leak, a Placer County grower, 

 reported in 1906 a net return of $759 from an acre of "Hungarian 

 prunes." 



By choosing varieties ripening in succession, the plum season 

 extends from May to December, thus enabling the California plum 

 grower to strike the Eastern markets both early and late. It is 

 on record, also, that second crop plums have ripened. In 1904 

 Judge Leib, of San Jose, sent to Luther Burbank, on December 

 1, ripe fruit from a tree which ripened its first crop on July 4 of 

 the same year. 



* All prunes are plums, but all plums are not prunes. A prune is a plum which 

 can be dried without the removal of the pit without fermenting: the result being a 

 fleshy pulp with a high degree of sweetness. All plums which will not do this are 

 not prunes, even though the word may appear in their California common names. 



t Found on prunus demissa, in Yosemite valley and in Coast range in San Mateo 

 County, by Dr. H. W. Harkness. Report State Board of Horticulture, 1883, pp. 54, 55. 



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