THE PLUM 25 
All plums are not purple, as you probably know, and some are 
very much larger than the plums shown im the picture, while 
others are smaller. Have you ever seen a green, a yellow, or a 
red plum ? 
There is a small plum that grows wild along the eastern sea 
coast called the beach plum. It is not very good raw because it 
is bitter and puchery, though some people say they like it. These 
are used for jam and jelly and preserves. 
Some of you may have been on a beach-plumming picnic and 
know what fun it is. Big baskets of lunch are taken and the 
whole family goes. All day long everybody picks. The lunch- 
baskets, when emptied of their lunch are filled again with plums. 
Most beach plums grow on very low trees, almost like bushes, 
and one can sit comfortably on the ground to pick them. 
If the plums are plentiful one day’s work may mean plum jam 
for the whole winter. 
Have you ever eaten stewed prunes, or prune pie? Did you 
know that prunes were plums too? 
They do not look very much like the rich purple plum you eat 
in the early fall, but that is because they have lost their color by 
drying. 
If you examine the stones or pits of the prunes the next time 
-you have them you will find them exactly like the plum stones 
we have been studving. 
All plums do not make good prunes, so special kinds are raised 
for this purpose. In California, Colorado, and many other west- 
ern states there are vast orchards of plum trees the fruit of which 
is used for prunes. The plums are picked and dried in the hot 
