French or Italian.

In the prune-growing district around Salem, Oregon, Italian prunes are grown exclusively for drying purposes.  French prunes were considered worthless.  Here in Sutter county, California, a great many French prunes are grown and we are advised to plant them, but would rather plant the Italian prune.  Which would you advise us to set out in this part of the State?

The Italian or Fellenberg prune was grown to some extent in California 40 years and abandoned; it was not so sure in bearing as the French, and it was not the type of prune which we had ambition to excel with.  The prune which we grow as the French is the true prune or plum of Agen.  We should plant it and let the Oregon people have the Italian.

Myrobalan Seedlings.

I am sending two small plums which I am told are Myrobalan plum.  I desire to grow seedlings on which later to bud and graft French prunes.  If these are Myrobalan plums, will trees from them be as good as trees from pits that were imported?

The fruits are Myrobalan plums, and their seedlings would be suitable for the French prune, providing the trees which bear them are strong, thrifty growing trees.  There is great variation in the colors of the Myrobalan seedlings, from light yellow to dark red, and it is the satisfactory growth of the tree rather than the character of the fruit which one has to bear in mind when growing seedlings from selected trees instead of depending so largely on imported seedlings.

Drying Plums and Prunes.

I have plum trees of various kinds that are loaded with fruit.  I do not know if any are of the variety used for drying as prunes:  I know nothing of the process of making or drying prunes.  One man suggests that I dip them for four or live minutes in a 3 or 4 per cent solution of lye and then place them in the sun.

Dipping your plums is right providing they are very sweet, as they will dry like prunes without removing the pit.  If they are plums that are commercially used for shipping, without enough sugar to dry as prunes, the pit must be removed.  Drying in this way, you do not need to use lye, which is simply for the purpose of cracking the skin so that the moisture can be more readily evaporated.  There is no danger in using the necessary amount of lye.  Less is used than in making hominy.

The Sugar Prune.

What is the commercial value of the Sugar prune?  Is there any other early ripening variety better than the Sugar?

It is selling very well as a cured prune, and growers in the northern bay counties especially have done so well that they are extending their plantings.  It is coarser in flesh than the French and generally flatter in flavor when cooked and thus falls below the ideal of a cured prune, but it has compensating characters, such as early ripening, with which no other prune compares.  The Sugar is also valuable as a shipping plum to Eastern markets.