LUTHER BURBANK 



sprang, but it fully equals the French prune in 

 flavor, and it is two to three times as large. It is 

 far more productive, and can be grown for one- 

 third to one-half the cost of producing the French 

 prune. In flavor it is fully equal to the celebrated 

 Imperial, and, in most striking contrast to that 

 fruit, it is exceedingly productive. 



Add that the new prune excels all other 

 varieties in the extreme earliness of its time of 

 fruiting, and it will be obvious that the sugar 

 prune marks at least a long step towards the ideal 

 at which I aimed. It ripens at a time when the 

 weather is hot and dry, so that it can be rapidly 

 cured. A month or so later when the other 

 varieties are maturing, the weather is often foggy 

 and cloudy and sometimes even rainy, so that fruit 

 curing is carried on under difficulties and often 

 with serious loss. 



It is not strange, then, that the sugar prune met 

 with an immediate and enthusiastic welcome from 

 many fruit growers, although of course there were 

 regions in which a prejudice was shown against it, 

 such as always meets any new product. 



In the markets of the East, the demand for the 

 sugar prune was soon far in excess of the supply. 

 A WoNDpRFUL Laboratory 



We have seen that the essential quality of the 

 prune, and that which differentiates it from plums 



[254] 



