ON EARLY YEARS IN SANTA ROSA 



Mr. Button was greatly pleased, as he had been 

 told by all other nurserymen that it was impos- 

 sible to produce trees in eight months, and he was 

 very anxious to get a prune orchard at once. By 

 systematic and energetic work we were able to 

 meet his exceptional needs. Never before or since, 

 I believe, was a 200-acre orchard developed in a 

 single season. 



Success at Last 



As suggested, the feat of producing the twenty 

 thousand prunes served to advertise my work 

 locally. Meantime the reputation for dependable- 

 ness of the Santa Rosa nursery products had been 

 greatly extending, in a very modest way to be 

 sure, yet with cumulative effect. 



Also the general knowledge that prunes con- 

 stituted a profitable crop was spreading, and about 

 this time the demand for prune trees became very 

 great. Naturally my reputation as a producer of 

 prune stock was enhanced by the demonstration 

 given with the twenty thousand young trees. 

 Prunes that had been grown in smaller lots gave 

 equal satisfaction to purchasers in various regions. 

 Great pains had been taken that no tree should 

 leave my nursery that was not exactly true to 

 name, and in all respects precisely as represented. 

 And now I began to reap the benefits of the repu- 

 tation thus established. 



[93] 



