8 



In " Medium Blue " are included Gueii and Quackenboss. In " Fancy Blue '* 

 are included Glass Seedling, Monarch and Grand Duke. 



The year of lowest prices was 1903, when the average of all varieties was only 

 18.6 cents per eleven quart basket gross. The year of highest prices was 1907 when 

 the average for all varieties was 75.1 cents gross; certainly an exceptional price for 

 plums: 



Again the average for all varieties for the ten years was 36 cents per eleven 

 quart. This price, though low to nianv, I consider fair, and consequently it does not 

 warrant the present partially neglected state of the industry. If five good growers 

 received this for all varieties for a period of ten years does not the increasing demand 

 warrant more careful methods of culture and sale and the planting of selected 

 varieties ? 



Carrying yields and returns still further we have in New York State (1909 

 census) 919,017 bearing plum and prune trees, with a yield of 553,553 bushels. 

 Ontario (1911 census) has 767,827 bearing plum and prune trees with a yield of 

 331,278 bushels. The New York product was valued at $519,192. The Ontario 

 product, at the average rate quoted previously in the table for that year (37.7 cent$, 

 average of all varieties), and considering three baskets to the bushel, would be worth 

 $374,675.48. 



Estimating thus, the product of Ontario was worth 48.8 cents per tree on an 

 average, while that of New York was worth 56.5 cents per tree on the average. 

 The figures are admitted to be only approximate averages, but still they are fairly 

 correct. The figures are even for different years, but they illustrate comparative 

 values, and the fact that plums as a whole are worth as much, or more, in the open 

 markets of the neighboring republic as they are in our open markets. In Ontario 

 the average price per bushel was lower in 1909 — the year of the last New York 

 census — than in the year quoted (from figures quoted previously), but the yield was 

 higher, so the comparative values per tree will still be the same. The total yield for 

 Ontario is not available for 1909, so we must use the census year. This again, to me, 

 at least, illustrates that the production and marketing methods of our competitors are 

 cheaper than ours, and that the industry could be made a profitable one, if given the 

 same attention as the other branches of the fruit industry. 



Poor Varieties. — Scarcely had the old and tried domestica varieties of plums 

 become widely distributed and well known Avhen the much lauded, much advertised, 

 over praised Japanese varieties were put on the market. A word as to their history 

 will make clear their standing. The first trees were imported in 1870 (Bailey) and 

 fruited in 1876. Commercial propagation began in 1883, or really only tliirty-one 



