Japanese Plums. 41 



It maj be said that the fear expressed in that bulletin that these 

 plums may be found to bloom too early for safe cultivation in 

 western New York, has proved to be unfounded. Farther south, 

 however, and even in Ohio and Indiana, the habitual early bloom 

 of some varieties renders them unsafe. The winters are more 

 uniform in character here than thev are farther south, and the 

 " warm spells " of early spring are rarely pronounced enough to 

 start the blossoms. It is probable, also, that the many large bodies 

 of water] in and about western New York exert a considera- 

 ble influence in retarding the fltful variations of early spring. I 

 have yet to hear of any serious loss of Japanese plums through 

 late spring frosts. There was an abundant crop of them in many 

 parts of western New York in 1895, notwithstanding the hard 

 frosts of May. 



Abundance {Lovett, Catalogue^ 1888). Figs. 1,2. 



Botan, of some. 



Medium to large, globular to globular-oblong, generally with a 

 distinct but minute point at the apex, often unequal-sided; stem 

 f in. long ; under-color yellow, overlaid with coppery red or with 

 very bright pink- red on the exposed side, in well-colored speci- 

 mens the entire surface reddened and- the under-color almost com- 

 pletely obscured or showing through only in dots and small flaky 

 patches ; flesh Arm, yet rather elastic and very juicy^ sometimes 

 slightly stringy, light amber-yellow, sweet and fully as good as 



place and turned over his acquisitions to other pai'ties. He seems to have 

 pulled up stakes in Vaca valley between his enlistment of the United 

 States officer in Japan in getting the trees, and the arrival of the trees 

 in San Francisco, and therefore he turned over the stock to John Kelsey. 

 D. E. Hough died about twelve years ago." 



Mr. Burbank wrote me as folloiws, in 1894, respecting his first importa- 

 tion: " My collector whom I sent to southern Japan about ten years ago 

 for the iSatsuma — of which, two years before, I had found a description in 

 a book in the Mercantile Library of San Francisco, written by a sailor — 

 sent me about half or more of the JajDan plums now in general cultivation. 

 All collectors inform me that there were no nurseries until lately, and 

 when an order was given, the collector secured a few here and there, 

 wherever they could be found. This accounts for the confusion of the 

 names." 



