LUTHER BURBANK 



Fortunately, however, there are possibilities of 

 wider hybridizations that give far greater promise. 



There are varieties of Japanese plums that will 

 stand hard freezing every morning from the time 

 the buds start until the fruit is of good size. With 

 ordinary plums such freezing absolutely prohibits 

 the development of fruit, and the apricot, of 

 course, cannot withstand even a single light frost. 



The resistant quality of the Japanese plum, 

 then, marks it as a plant having in pre-eminent 

 measure the precise quality that the apricot mo^t 

 conspicuously lacks. 



So the question at once arises as to whether it 

 may not be possible to hybridize the apricot and 

 the Japanese plum and by so doing breed into the 

 apricot strain the quality of hardiness, just as we 

 have seen specific qualities bred into other plants 

 by similar hybridization. 



Fortunately it is possible to make such a cross. 

 Reference has already been made to the new fruit 

 called the Plumcot that I produced a good many 

 years ago by making use of this particular com- 

 bination. A full account of the methods involved 

 and the difficulties overcome in producing this 

 very unusual hybrid will be given in a subsequent 

 chapter. 



It will then appear that the plumcot is to all 

 intents and purposes a new species of fruit. 



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