COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF THE WORK 
foreign countries, they are distinctly threat- 
ened by Mr. Burbank himself, and this is why 
it is so very difficult to give any adequate 
estimate of the commercial value of his new 
plums and prunes. They are threatened be- 
cause when his new pitless plum and the 
pitless prune which will follow are once upon 
the market, the death-knell of present-day 
plums and prunes of their class will have 
been sounded. These new plums and prunes 
promise to be just as beautiful, just as rich, 
or richer, just as hardy and prolific, and the 
place of the pits of former centuries is to be 
occupied with the meat of the fruit itself. As 
soon as this is done, many plum and prune 
orchards in the world will be practically 
supplanted, and all of them must eventually 
be made over to suit the new order of things. 
Day by day, as his splendid plums and 
prunes make their way among the fruit-grow- 
ers, they are paying handsomely on the invest- 
ment, and they will yield their revenues up 
to the very limit of the date of the appearing 
of the new plum, and even on beyond, while 
it is coming into bearing, so that there will 
be no great and wholesale disaster. But the 
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