Notes Upon Plums. 171 



respect to varieties, it is difficult to make any classification of 

 those of the domestica stock. Perhaps the best that could be 

 done would be to make four loose groups, as follows : 



1. Damsons comprising very small firm plums of various colors, 

 generally borne in clusters, the leaves mostly small. The 

 run-wild plums of old roadsides and farmyards are mostly 

 of the damson type. (Fig. 46 and title page. ) 



2. The green gages, comprising various smallish, green or yel- 

 low-green plums of spherical form and mostly of high quality. 

 Reine Claude is the commonest representative of this group 

 in this State. There seems to be no specific Green Gage 

 generally propagated in this country. The name has now 

 come to represent a class of plums. 



3. Large yellow plums, such as Coe's Golden Drop, Washing- 

 ton, and the like. 



4. Large colored plums, including the various red, blue and 

 purple varieties, like the blue prunes, Lombard, Bradshaw, 

 Quackenboss, etc. 



In respect to hardiness of the different types of plums, it may 

 be said that at Cornell the Japanese and domestica varieties are 

 about equally resistant to cold. Neither of them bore fruit last 

 year, but the winter of 1895-6 was one of very unusual severity. 

 The Americana types are very hardy. Fig. 37 shows sprigs of 

 the three types taken at blossoming time in 1896. The upper 

 shoot is Abundance (Japanese), the middle one Jefferson (domes- 

 tica), and the lowest one Quaker (Americana). In the two first, 

 the fruit-spurs were entirely killed. Although the Americanas 

 are so very hardy, we do not recommend them for market culti- 

 vation in western New York because they are inferior to the 

 domesticas and the years are very seldom in which the domes- 

 ticas are injured seriously by cold. 



The leading type of plum for western New York will no doubt 

 alwaj^s be the domesticas. The Japanese varieties are important 

 because they add variety to the list, and especially because they 

 are rich in very early kinds and the fruit is so firm that it carries 

 well ; aside from this, the trees are vigorous and very productive, 

 and they are less liable to the attacks of the black-knot and the 

 shot-hole fungus than the domesticas are. 



