THIRD REPORT UPON JAPANESE PLUMS. 



In two bulletins (Nos. 62 and 106) we have made reports upon the 

 history and varieties of plums which have recently come into this 

 country from Japan. A crop of many of the varieties upon the Cornell 

 grounds in 1897, enables us to make a third report. The nomencla- 

 ture of this class of plums is in the greatest confusion, and the plums 

 themselves are too little understood to warrant unqualified recommen- 

 dation. It will be several years yet before we can expect to thoroughly 

 classify our knowledge of them. This confusion is of itself a strong 

 reason why these reports should be made, for, while we do not expect 

 that we have arrived at a full knowledge of the varieties, the confusion 

 would increase rather than diminish if no attempt were made to record 

 the tests from year to year. The confusion among these plums has 

 arisen because the Japanese class-names have been retained in this 

 country, and because various parties have disseminated the varieties 

 under numbers or without names. The writer has therefore given new 

 names to varieties which are passing under class-names and numbers; 

 but the renaming of any variety is not to be regarded as a recom- 

 mendation of it. At first it was intended to include in this report 

 copious extracts from the current press respecting the varieties of 

 Japanese plums, but it so frequently happens that persons have differ- 

 ent varieties under the same name that there is danger of adding to 

 the confusion rather than diminishing it by too free quotations from 

 contemporaneous writings. We have merely set down the behavior of 

 such varieties as have fruited with us this year, making such correc- 

 tions of nomenclature as seem to be necessary in order to clarify the 

 subject. 



I am still convinced that the Japanese plums have come to stay. 

 By this I do not mean that they are destined to supplant the domestica 

 and native plums, but that they are bound to supplement those types 

 with varieties that are adapted to particular purposes and conditions. 

 As a class, they are vigorous, hardy and productive in tree, and the fruit 



