STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Ill 



could bo selected than these trees had to test the value of a plum 

 for this climate, and its ability to withstand its insect enemies. 



Now for the result. Nearly all these seedlings of the true 

 Chickasaw tyi)e have i)n)duced full and ])erfect crops of fruit to 

 maturity for the past four to eight years, with no failure from any 

 cause. (I will here note, in the way of pia-enthesis, that so far as 

 my exi)erience goes with them, the Chickasaw family of plums 

 are not lial)le to have their blossoms or young fruit destroyed by late 

 spring frosts like many other of our orchard plants.) From this lot 

 of seedlings 1 have selected six varieties of the pure Chickasaw type, 

 ripening in succession, that I think well worthy of preservation and 

 extended pro]iagntion and dissemination. Of the named varieties of 

 the Chickasaw }ilanted here, and I have had them in fruiting, all 

 that I have heard of the Wild Goose has proven it to be the earliest 

 and the Newman the latest, except one of my seedlings, which is a 

 little later, to ripen their fruits. The fruit of the Wild Goose is the 

 is the largest, and that of the Newman among the smallest. These 

 six best seedlings of mine iill in the gap completely in regular suc- 

 cession between these two varieties; the Wild Goose ripening with 

 me from July first to the twentieth, the Newman from August 

 fifteenth to iSeptember tenth. 



Ill ({uality, both for table and cooking, my new varieties are all 

 supericjr to the older named varieties, some of them notably so. In 

 size of fruit they are none of them quite so small as the Newman nor 

 so large as the Wild Goose. They are in color from a light scarlet 

 to a dark crimson. All except one are handsome ornamental trees. 

 These are the facts about these new plums as I have observed them. 

 Now, curiousl}', the Chickasaw type of plums seeins to be entirely and 

 completely hardy with me. Yet the center of its native habitat is 

 about Memphis, Tennessee, and it extends from here, near its pro- 

 liable northern range, to the Gulf of Mexico, and probably farther 

 south. A ))lum that will withstand the winters of the past ten 

 years, as these have, and that perfectly, there is seemingly little 

 danger of their ever being destroyed by cold. 



Curiously the plums from the northwest in this lot, especially 

 those from Minnesota and Dakota, seem to be less injured by the 

 curculio than the Chickasaw, but the young fruit seems to suffer a 

 little nnjre from the jilum gouger than do the Chickasaw. But I did 

 not. in this short and hastily written paper, purpose going into the 

 sul)ject fully of our native [)lums and their enemies, but to simply 

 call attention to these new plums. 



But I must say, that if we are going to make more than one 

 species out of our native plums, that we will have to add other and 

 well defined species, certainly as well defined as any division or 

 species heretofore made, and surely form a species for the northwest- 

 ern type, which is as clearly distinct from our native Illinois ty])e as 

 the Chickasaw is. My observations have proven conclusively to me, 



