6 
PART SECOND. 
PRUNES. 
It may be useless on our part to point out the importance of the Prune interest in 
California, and to demonstrate through figures, statistics and the like, of what vast import 
is to our State this infant industry, to which development such a large area of our great 
State is so well adapted. 
So far, in California, a variety of the Prune D'Ente orD'Agen, called here, on account 
of its small size, " Petite Prune D'Ageu," has been almost exclusively cultivated. This 
Petite Prune, which is exceedingly sweet and well flavored, makes an excellent prune if 
properly dried or cured; but some objections are made concerning its small size and, in 
some cases, light color, when compared to the much larger and darker product of the 
French. These two defects, whatever be the general qualities of that prune, are serious 
ones; and it was the main reason why we did advise the planting and testing of the best 
known sorts cultivated in the renowned prune districts of Europe. We have ourselves, 
for the last three or four years, investigated in the most thorough manner this prune ques- 
tion, imported from the very prune districts of France the best known types of that 
famous prune, going there under the name of D'Ente or Robe De Sergent; and found out 
that our Petite Prune is a true type of the D'Ente, its botanical characters being identical, 
and the fruit as richly flavored and sweet as that of its French ancestor. We, furthermore, 
ascertained that there was no such thing as a " Grosse " or "Petite" prune D'Ente or 
D'Agen, and that such names had been used, and wrongly so, but in this State; aiid, 
finally succeeded in narrowing down this prune question to a simple question of " size," 
the fruit of the D'Ente in France attaining a much larger size than that of the California 
D'Ente, or Petite Prune. But we will have to wait another year before being able to tell 
with a certainty whether this difference in size of the fruit is due to our soil and climate, 
or to a difi^erence in types, since the crop of our imported trees was so badly damaged by 
late frosts this spring (1887) and also hail, making it impossible for us to come to anything 
definite about the true size of the fruit. 
Among the various types of the D'Ente that we have fruited upon our grounds, 
are the following ones: California D'Ente or Petite Prune; Lot D'Ente or "D'Ente true 
from the root;" Loire D'Ente or false type of the D'Ente, wrongly propagated by the 
nurseries of the Loire valley, in France, and from which California nurserymen have been 
importing that type for the true one; Mont-Barbat D'Ente from the Lot, a type that car- 
ried 32 first premiums at the district fairs of Clairac, the center of the Prune district 
there. We herewith give cuts of those four types as grown upon our place this season 
(1887), and also a cut of the Mont-Barbat as grown in France, or at least a out of the 
largest fruit of that kind grown there, and cuts of the stone of each. Nurserymen in 
California that imported this false type of the D'Ente from the nurseries of the Loire 
Valley, will know that that type is a bastard type of the D'Ente, greatly inferior to all 
others including our Petite Prune; besides people will understand what we mean when- 
ever using the word "pure" or "true" when applying it to any of those types of the 
Prune D'Ente; it is simply to distingush those true and pure types from any false ones, 
like that named by us Loire D'Ente, and unfortunately propagated throughout this State 
under the belief that it was a true type of the renowned French prune. 
Another expression used by us seems to not be quite understood. We mean that of 
"True from the root," as applied to the oldest type of the D'Ente and St. Catherine. 
True from the root is what the French call " Franc De Pied," (not grafted) a kind whose 
root is true, such as layers, cuttings and sprouts growing at the foot of trees themselves 
true, as we find them in Figs, Olives, Filberts, Currants. The St. Catherine and D'Ente 
prunes, "true from the root," are propagated in this way: Sjn-outs growing at the foot 
of old and large trees which are true, that is, not grafted, are taken oflf and planted in nur- 
sery rows, trained like any other trees, and transijlanted where to remain, when branched. 
In the snow horticultural belt of the Sierra, which extends from 1,200 to 3,000 feet 
above the level of the sea, the prune, like the plum, in that belt, grows splendidly— no 
trouble about that— and it bears heavily, too, provided the " gum" lets it alone and 
