The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-10-13
Prune Growing
as a Fine Art.
DEVELOPMENT OF ONE OF THE
GREATEST AGRICULTURAL IN
TERESTS IN THE COUNTRY.

weeks aprlcotS ana Soiuen, geilOW peaches
have been desiccatiIg in the warm Cali
fornia sun, and now the royal purple prunes
are taking their places upon the drying
trays and are being cured literally by the
acre.
How many who see a box of prunes on the
grocery shelf stop TO think whence they
came, of the sunny skies beneath which
they were grown and under which they
were spread to be cured. of the millions OF
trees, of the miles and miles Of blossoms IN
the spring time. making the air heavy
with perfume and giving an aspect OF a
snowstorm to the entire landscape. or the
thousands of men and boys. worne ana
girls who work among the fruit and OF the
processes by which the fruit on the tree is
converted into that seen in the box! How
many, also. when they see the little dried
prunes so common and once universal. know
that there is an infinitely better one. larger.
better looking and better favored. which
grows In the sunny valleys of California!
How many are aware that the prune they
have known from childhood is not the
prune as 1t is grown in California and as it
appears and tastes when put on the table
after some of the receipts long used by
the California prune growers and now be-
ing published for the benefit of all?
A little box of prunes on the grocery shelf
does not look very imposing, but it repre-
sents an enormous industry. 1t is part or
an annual crop which amounted last year
TO aO,000,O0 pounds. These figures are
large, yet they represent less than three
pounds to each inhabitant of the United
States alone, certainly not 4 great amount
of fruit to be consumed by persons who eat
in one form or another three barrels OF ap-
pies each every year Yet apples are
grown everywhere, in every State and Ter
ritory of the Union. while the culture of the
prune is confined almost exclusively TO Cal
ifornia, though some are grown in other
sections of the Pacific Coast. The Industry
is localized even more than this, for of the
62.OOO acres OF prune trees in California
about 1900 are in the single county of
Santa Clara. 1t is here that the prune in
dustry has reached its highest development
in the world. The old Turkish prune of
Bosnia and SerTia, the little. weakened,
skinny. tasteless thing which was all the
market had a generation ago, was improved
upon by the French prune. and California
growers now give to those who know what
q good prune Is a fruit that is scarcely
even a relative In appearance and taste of
the one which once made the prune n joke
from one end of the country to the other.
The Valley OF Santa Clara lies at the
head OF San Francisco Bay. and is inclosed
on the east by the Mount Hamilton range
and on the south and west by the Santa
Cruz Mountains. being open to the sea
breezes on the north by the way of the
bay, and the Golden Gate some fifty miles
distant. Here 1t is. where nature riots,
where the sun shines perpetually. yet where
there Is rain enough for luxuriant crops and
a great underground reservoir for arteslan
wells for i-rigating orchards. where the
climate is equable and there are neither
the rigors Of winter nor the heat prostra-
tions Of summer. that the millions of prtine
trees, wear their white robes in the spring
and bear their purple burdens of ripening
fruit In the fall. There are in the valley
some 100000 trees. most of which are now
in bearing, and more are being set out ev-
cry year. though not enough to keep pace
with increased consumption of the fruit,
now that people are learning that the Cal
ifornia prune is not the kind with which
they haze been familiar. The scenes in
Santa Clara Valley are repeated in the
other districts in California, where prtnes
are grown in considerable quantities. The
most important of these districts lie in
Alameda. Napa- Sonoma. Yolo, Colusa.
Tulare. Sacramento, San Joaquin and Los
Angeles counties.
Prune trees are not grown upon their
own roots. but are grated upon stock grown
from peach stones. This makes them
harder and more thrifty. Generally the
young trees are set in the orchard the sec
ond year, the distance of thirty feet each
way being that now favored. though the
earlier orchards were set usually at twenty
feet. This was found to be too close for the
best results in bearing. the trees touching
each other in their upper parts, and not
thriving SO well as when farther apart.
Trees set too close together. also, produce
smaller fruit on the average than
those farther apart. and as the price of
prunes is gagged by the size 1t is profta-
BILE to produce a smaller quantity OF larger
sizes and, therefore,, better to have n less
number OF trees to the acre in order to do
so. There are also considerations of soil
and location in planting an orchard, all of
which are local matters. though important, |
and must be given careful attention.
The cultivation Of an orchard during the
time Of its maturing is an important mat
ter. This period Ii from five to six years, |
though full bearing does not come for sew
eral years Later. The ground is cultivated
as carefully as It would be for the growing
of another crop. The soil is kept pulver-
lied, and is also rolled OF the surface for
OIL aticn. This careful cultivation is contiu-
ued. during the entire life OF the orchard
and IL the secret Of thrifty trees and large
fruit
Generally a crop OF grass or clover or
some leguminous plant Is sown in the or
chard in the fall and permitted to grow lux
uriantly through the winter, when the
abundant rains and the warm and sunny
days give 1t n heavy and rank growth. In
the spring this crop is plowed in and be-
comes an excellent fertilizer for the feeding
OF the trees. The careful orchardist who
provides food for his trees and cult
Yates his orchard thoroughly is the one who
profits the most from abundant crops of
large-siZed fruit. The influence of example
has been SO great that the number of SLOW
emily orchardists to be found In the valley
is very lew, and so far as appearances go
the whole valley might be a single orchard
and under q single management. SO perfect
~ are all the orchards cultivated and cared
for.
The prune tree has its insect and fungus
like all fruits, but care and scientific
attention neutralize them. Probably no
in the world has the science of or-
charding on q large scale been raised to a
higher STANDARD than in the prune districts
Of California. and nowhere will be found
trees or more perfect fruit. In this
are and the perfection Of fruit resulting
from 1t lie much Of the superiority of the
California prune over that grown in any
Dther section OF the world.
The notorious San Jose scale Is probably
more q stranger to the orchards about San
Jose, whose name 1t bears, than any other
I'D orchard district in the country. This is
the growers know how to fight it
and have fought it with determination and
complete success. 1t was not a native of
Santa Clara Valley. but was imported, it is
believed, from Japan. where 1t is found
IN p~fofusion on the native trees. San Jose,
was the first locality where 1t
was recognized as q deadly enemy of fruit