PLUMS WHICH ARE NOT PRUNES 



319 



Oregon and other States north of us, it is out of California cal- 

 culations. The conclusion of the whole matter now is that we 

 have never secured from abroad a better than the one which 

 came 50 years ago the true prune d'Agen. We have learned 

 to grow it better, to seek places where it comes larger and in 

 full quality; to use irrigation when it is needed by the tree to do 

 its best ; to guard against overbearing by reducing the amount 

 of bearing wood and excessive branching; to strengthen the ,soil 

 by fertilization, and to grade the fruit into sizes which commend 

 themselves to different demands. Here we are again, doing our 

 main business at the old stand, but knowing how to do it better. 

 Have we anything more to expect? Probably nothing from old 

 varieties, for we have prospected them all from a prune-making 

 point of view, taking Coe's Golden Drop plum, or its seedling, 

 for the Silver Prune, and canceling all others as possibly good 

 plums for various uses, but not for prunes. 



Probably our only expectation lies along the line of plant 

 breeding, although nothing to supplant the prune d'Agen has 

 yet been attained. The Giant prune is a large red plum ; several 

 Oregon prunes are simply large red plums. The standard of 

 sugar in the prune d'Agen as grown in California is from 15 to 

 23 per cent of sugar in the fresh juice, according to degree of 

 ripeness and localities in which the fruit is grown. The sugar 

 in Pond's Seedling and in the large red plums just named is less 

 than 10 per cent sometimes very much less. But percentage 

 of sugar in the juice is not the whole story; there are tissue or 

 flesh characters which are essential also. Mr. Burbank's Sugar 

 prune answers the sugar requirement; it is a free bearer and 

 early ripening variety, and it dries easily though large ; but it 

 has not the fine grain nor distinctive flavor of the prune d'Agen, 

 and it becomes a good plum for shipping and possibly for other 

 plum purposes. But Mr. Burbank has many of the plum family 

 in training, and it would not be surprising if he should announce 

 at any time a variety educated fully up to the very definite Cali- 

 fornia requirements, which he fully understands. Others are 

 also working at the problem, and the next generation of California 

 prune growers may attain what the last and present have striven 

 for. The most promising line at the present time is the search 

 for better types of the Prune d'Agen which are found here and 

 there, arising from natural variation. Mr. Leonard Coates of 

 Morgan Hill, is giving particular attention to this subject. 



POLLINATION OF PLUMS 



The shy bearing of certain plums is probably due to lack of 

 pollination, either through the self-sterility of the variety or 

 lack of acceptable pollinating agencies. Bearing can be induced 

 in many cases, no doubt, by either planting or grafting-in of 



