PLUMS AND PRUNES 
other points, particularly in Europe, have 
come testimonials from those who have intro- 
duced various of Mr. Burbank’s plums, all the 
more significant because the stock was bought 
not of him but of some dealer to whom in 
other years Mr. Burbank had sold the original 
stock. His letter files are full of the heartiest 
thanks from American fruit-raisers for having 
made plums and prunes which have very 
greatly increased their revenues. One man 
enumerated the following points about a plum 
he had bought of Mr. Burbank, and his esti- 
mate of the fruit may be taken as the conden- 
sation of hundreds of letters: 1. A more rapid 
grower. 2. An earlier bearer. 3. An earlier 
ripener. 4. Larger fruit. 5. Richer in sugar. 
6. Its great size gives it a distinct commercial 
value over others. a 
The new plums and prunes have been pro- | 
duced both by crossing and by selection of 
seedlings. Sometimes six or even more plums 
are combined in crossing to get just the char- 
acteristic desired. In other cases, the new 
plum has come from the seed. Hundreds 
of thousands of the pits are planted and, out 
of the young trees which grow, the most 
113 
