114 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Relyiiiu; iijioii the enor<i^y mid push of our people, we can confi- 

 dently predict that the day is not fur distant Avhen the plan will be 

 evolved for the complete circumvention of the little Turk. Then, 

 probably, the plum will be appreciated in this country as it is, and 

 has been for ages, in Europe. To show how highly it is esteemed in 

 some parts, at least, of the Old World, I will quote from a letter, 

 written more than thirty years ago, by Andre Leroy, a noted horti- 

 culturist of France: 



"There are in the world some favored countries that nature takes 

 pleasure in loadintj with her gifts. Among these countries we should cer- 

 tainly place the rich valley that the river Loire bathes in the part included 

 between Tours and Angers, a distance of about one hundred miles. There 

 all the trees have a luxuriance of vegetation that we scarcely meet with 

 elsewhere. The tree which offers the most profit to the cultivator, and 

 with the least trouble, is the Saint Catharine jilum tree. Indeed the cul- 

 tivation of this tree has been carried to such an extent that it is not easy 

 to give a perfect idea of it. In this rich and fertile valley, where the hab- 

 itations are so near each ether that we might call the road between 

 Angers and Tours a long street or faubourg extending from one of these 

 cities to the other, the gardens are planted with this variety of plum 

 trees. 



" If we cross this country in the months of March and April, when 

 the plum trees are covered with blossoms, we are not astonished that 

 'Tours is called the garden of France, and Angers its nursery.' 



" The plum tree has spread from the valley to the hills, where it is 

 as common now as in the valley. The cultivation has extended into soils 

 which differ essentially from that of the Loire. This fact proves that the 

 tree is not capricious as to the nature of the earth upon which it grows. 



"The quantity of plums we gather on a country of about one hund- 

 red miles in length and fifty in breadth, is so considerable that it is not 

 possible to est;iblish its precise amount; but it makes a commerce, which 

 every year produces several million dollars." 



The variety mentioned by Leroy — the Saint Catharine — has 

 not succeeded in our locality, nor has it been popular in any section 

 of this country. 



In fact, out of the vast numl)er of varieties brought to us from 

 the Old World, and the numerous valuable varieties grown in this 

 country from the seed of foreign sorts, only one, the Loml)ard, can 

 be called popular in this State. 



The Lombard is the most planted, and more generally esteemed 

 than any or all other varieties of the Prunifs DoiHcsfica. But it is 

 to the improved native American sorts that we must look for the 

 coming plum of Illinois; and where is there a fruit that gives 

 greater promise of reward in the direction of new varieties than 

 these native plum trees? 



There are two distinct families of plums indigenous to this 

 State: the Canadian and the Chickasaw; one or the other growing in 

 great abundance in all our native woods. 



There are, also, growing in many places, wild plum trees, which 

 seem to me to differ decidedly, in some important and marked char- 

 acteristics, from both of these families. All these native species and 

 varieties are much improved by cultivation. 



