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. 



The new plums and prunes have been pro- 

 duced both by crossing and by selection of 

 seedlings. Sometimes six or even more species 

 are combined in crossing to get just the char- 

 acteristic desired. In other cases, the new 

 plum comes from uncrossed seed. Hundreds 

 of thousands of the pits are planted and, out 

 of the young trees which grow, the most 



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