or 
to marry a girl to whom he was engaged. Combining business with 
matrimony, he secured a large number of cuttings of prunes, grapes, 
and other fruits, which he brought back with him on his.return. His 
bride and his brother Jean accompanied him, and, together with the 
box of precious cuttings, they made the voyage successfully, crossing 
the isthmus, and arriving in San Francisco in December, 1856. 
The prune cuttings were procured in the Ville Neuve d’Agen, from 
whence the common California prune derives its name of Petit Prune 
d’Agen. They were carefully packed in a box about sixteen inches 
square by four feet in length, which was lined with cloth, and every 
precaution was taken to insure the safe arrival of what has since proved 
the germ of one of the most important industries of California. Upon 
its arrival the shipment was at once transmitted to Louis Pellier at San 
José, and a number of plum roots were grafted to the newly arrived 
prunes. This started the first prune nursery on the Pacific Coast, which 
was located in the city of San José, on Devine Street, between Tarraine 
and Santa Teresa. 
The importance of Pellier’s experiment was not at first appreciated. 
A German nurseryman named B. Kamp procured some grafts from 
Pellier, and also worked for the introduction of the prune. He was one 
of the first to put out prune trees in orchard row. But comparatively 
little attention was paid to prune growing, as a specialty, for a quarter 
of a century after its introduction into the State. The superiority of 
California as a fruit-growing State, however, at last forced itself upon 
public attention, and, among other fruits, the prune was given a trial, 
and it soon proved its great capacity as a profitable crop, and to-day it 
ranks among the leading industries of the Golden State. 
GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY. 
Probably the oldest orchard of any size in the State is the Bradley orchard,, 
on Stevens’ Creek road, about two miles out of San José. This was set out jn’ 
1870. The success of this led others to go into prune growing, and the 
O’Banion & Kent orchard, near Saratoga, was planted in 1878-9, and the Dr, 
Handy orchard of one hundred acres, at Saratoga, followed in 1880-81 ; in 1881) 
the Buxton orchard, also at Saratoga, was planted, and prune growing and 
curing on a large scale became a fixed fact. ne ete Sah LS 
From that time the growth of the industry has been phenomenal. Th 
prune industry has been practically the growth of the past decade, fo 
within that period the planting of orchards, their cultivation, and th 
proper care of their product, have grown into a system. In the prun 
center of Santa Clara County, which ten years since produced not 
pound of this fruit, it is now exported by the carload. Above Lo 
Gatos Mr. Morrell was then one of the heaviest producers, and his 
output was five to six tons per annum; he now packs from five to six 
carloads each season from the same orchard. — 
Santa Clara County was from the beginning the center of the prune 
industry, and here was demonstrated the fact that prune growing would 
pay; that no extraordinary care was required in cultivation or mysterious 
skill in preparation. As soon as these facts were demonstrated other 
counties took up the pursuit, until now the prune is found in all except 
the highest mountain counties in the State. In 1870 there were but 
19,059 prune trees in the State, while the Assessors’ reports for 1886 
which are probably 25 per cent too low, give the number in the various 
counties that year at 1,077,841. 
