LUTHER BURBANK 



It is a matter of more or less authentic record 

 that the prune was originally introduced into 

 California by a French sailor named Louis Pellier, 

 who came to San Francisco in 1849 with the first 

 horde of gold seekers. 



Prunes From France 



Failing to make his fortune in the mines, this 

 young man, in association with his brother who 

 had presently joined him, established a nursery 

 and conducted it with a certain measure of 

 success until 1856 when one of the brothers 

 returned to France to bring back a bride. He 

 brought also some prune cuttings. And these, 

 notwithstanding the long journey by way of the 

 Isthmus, were still alive when California was 

 reached. 



They were immediately grafted upon plum 

 stock, with entire success. 



The most important of the varieties of prune 

 thus introduced was the common French prune, 

 sometimes known as the prune d'Agen. The 

 descendants of this stock made up the large prune 

 orchards of California for the ensuing half 

 century. 



The French prune, while not without its good 

 points, is by no means a perfect fruit. It is a 

 cling-stone, which is a serious defect in a prune. 

 Moreover, the stone itself is rather large in pro- 



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