DECIDUOUS FRUITS 187 



In addition to the European and Japanese plums, North 

 America has many native species. 1 



Plums are distributed widely over the United States. 

 According to the last census, over one-third of the acreage 

 in plums is in California, the greatest producing section in 

 the world being the Santa Clara Valley which yields about 

 one-fourth of the plums and prunes grown in the United 

 States. Oregon produces large quantities of plums and 

 prunes and Washington a smaller amount. 



Canada grows plums over a wide area. W. T. Macoun 

 says: "The plum has not been as profitable to grow in Can- 

 ada as some other fruits, but with a careful selection of varie- 

 ties and good care it will be found to give fairly good returns. 

 In those parts of Canada where European plums do not 

 succeed, the improved native and American varieties have been 

 found very profitable. Some of these ripen before the Euro- 

 pean plums come on the market and they sell at high prices/' 2 



European plums succeed well in Prince Edward Island, 

 Nova Scotia, the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, in 

 Quebec, British Columbia, and Ontario. Japanese varieties 

 are grown in the south coastal region of Nova Scotia, western 

 Ontario, and the milder parts of British Columbia. 



It must be kept in mind that when the word "plum" has 

 been used, the "prune" is understood as being included, the 

 prune being a plum that contains sufficient sugar to enable 

 it to be dried without removal of the pit. The two fruits are 

 alike in every other respect. An analysis of the prune from 

 the standpoint of food value shows that it is in a class quite 

 by itself. The dried article contains 2.1 per cent protein and 

 73.37 carbohydrate; and there are records of prunes, the 

 dried edible portion of which analyzed 50 per cent sugar. 

 It is, therefore, high in food value, yielding nutriment in an 

 easily digested form at a nominal cost. 



1 Bailey, Evolution of Our Native Fruits. 



*Bull. 43, Dominion of Canada Dept. Agric. Exp. Farms, 1918. 



