PLUMS AND PRUNES 
take, went to Vermont and, there being no 
delivery, they were returned. After having 
made the trans-continental journey twice by 
mail, they were as fresh and fine of appearance 
and as luscious to the taste as the ones picked 
from the trees upon the day of their arrival in 
Santa Rosa, after their long journey. 
As rapidly as he has perfected a plum or a 
prune, it passes from his hands and others reap 
the profits,—but he has accomplished his 
object, he has given something new and help- 
ful to the world. While he has the fine true 
imagination of the poet and a nature in closest 
harmony with all that is beautiful, at the same 
time he sees things from an intensely practical 
point of view. Upon this practical side of his 
work he has some decided views. He says: 
“With the world as a market, competi- 
tion is keen, and only the best fruits in the 
best condition will pay; fortunately, it gene- 
rally costs much less per ton to produce large, 
first-class fruit than to produce the poorest 
and meanest specimens that are ever offered. 
Small fruit exhausts the tree much more 
rapidly than large fruit, as one pound of skin, 
stones and seeds represents at least ten or 
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