NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



on fertile soil or barren soil. The branches are 

 so closely packed at bearing time that there is 

 no room for leaves, only a solid compact 

 mass of fruit. 



But a more wonderful plum than any of 

 these has been made by Mr. Burbank, a plum 

 without pit. This plum has not been placed 

 upon the market because not entirely finished, 

 though the pit has been bred out of it. For 

 about two centuries there had been growing 

 in France a tiny plum, so called, with only a 

 suggestion of a pit. Mr. Burbank took this 

 plum, bred it with other plums to increase 

 its size and beauty, and injected into it a rich 

 new life. Years passed by in the testing, and 

 at last the pit of the large luscious plum which 

 was the result of the years of breeding has 

 disappeared. It only remains now a matter of 

 time to breed the pits from all plums and 

 prunes and leave in their places so much more 

 room for rich, nutritious food. More than one 

 skeptical person, numbering among them 

 some prominent scientists of^ Europe and 

 America, has stood beside one of the many 

 trees which bear these stoneless plums upon 

 Mr. Burbank's proving grounds at Sebastopol 



120 



