CHAPTER VII 
PLUMS AND PRUNES 
ia would be difficult to reach a satisfactory 
estimate of the amount Mr. Burbank’s 
commercial creations have already added to 
the world’s wealth. This is particularly diffi- 
cult both because of the rapid progression of 
a new fruit through multiplication in different 
lands, replacing old fruits of its kind season 
by season, and because of the large number 
of varieties in his list, each one filling a sepa- 
rate field. For example, he has introduced 
over twenty varieties of plums and _ prunes, 
each with some distinctive and valuable char- 
acteristic, while he has made several thousand 
new plum and prune combinations, many of 
which are now under test. The potato which 
bears his name has increased the wealth of 
the United States by many millions of dollars, 
but the new plums and prunes promise to 
exert a still wider commercial and economic 
influence. One entire town in California, 
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