242 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and regions is a disputed one, as should be expected from the large number 

 of varieties in cultivation and the newness of the native plum industry. 

 Undoubtedly the most popular variety is the Wild Goose, but its popular- 

 ity is due less to the quality of its fruits than to the hardiness and pro- 

 ductiveness of the tree and the early fruit. The Miner is perhaps the 

 hardiest well-known variety of the Hortulana type. It succeeds in many 

 places in northern Illinois. In Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and regions 

 to the north of them, only the Americana class is hardy, as a rule. The 

 Ohickasaws are best adapted to the middle and southern states. None of 

 the native plums have been tried to any extent iu New York and New 

 England, from the fact that the common or Domestica plums succeed so 

 well there. The incursions of the septoria or shot-hole fungus, — which 

 causes premature dropping of the leaves, — are calling attention to the 

 native plums, and it is not too much to expect that they will gain in favor 

 as they become better known. And the growing taste for a greater variety 

 of fruits must tend to popularize some of the native plums in the east. 



4. Insects and diseases. — Numerous insects and fungi attack the native 

 plums. Much has been written concerning the supposed immunity of the 

 fruit from the attacks of the curculio, and while it may be said that there 

 is no curculio-proof plum, it is also true that the native varieties, as a rule, 

 are less injured than the common or Domestica varieties.* 



The fungi which do serious injury to the native plums are indicated for 

 this paper by Dr. E. F. Smith, of the Division of Vegetable Pathology of 

 the national Department of Agriculture, as follows: 



" 1. The American varieties suffer little from septoria. or the shot-hole fungus of the 

 leaves. (See Arthur, 5th and 6th reports N. Y. experiment station, with which my 



observations coincide). 



"2. Black-knot occurs on Prunus Americana in Michigan thickets, but I have never 

 seen it upon the Chickasaws. 



"3. The brown fruit-rot {Monilia fructigena ) of the stone fruits attacks the native 

 varieties, but they are more exempt, I think, than thevarieties of Prunus domestica. 

 As in the peach, the fungus attacks the twigs as well as the fruits. 



'"4. The leaf-rust {Puccinia pruni-spinosn) is said to do injury in the southwestern 

 states, but while I have seen it on peaches in many parts of the country. I have not 

 found it upon the native plums. 



"5. Plum-pockets or bladders (TapJirina pruni) is a frequent disease upon the native 

 plums. It attacks the Americana and Chickasaw varieties and the Wild Goose. In 

 Michigan I have seen it only on the fruit, which it changes into conspicuous bladders. 

 In Maryland and Georgia it is common on shoots of wild Chickasaws and on cultivated 

 Wild Goose, and it rarely attacks the fruit. It does considerable injury every spring. 



"6. An obscure blight often attacks native plums — as Wild Goose. Robinson, Mari- 

 anna and others causing the branches to die back during the growing season. The 

 leaves and large branches and sometimes the whole tree wilt and become brown with- 

 out apparent cause, and sometimes the tree dies. The roots do not appear to be 

 involved, for they often send up healthy shoots after the entire top has died. This 

 blight has been known in middle Georgia for several years and does more injury to 

 plums than all other troubles combined. 



" 7. The peach-rosette also attacks the native plums and perhaps is destined to mak© 

 more trouble than any other disease in the south and west. (See Journal of Mycology 

 iv. 143; same, vi. no. 4; also bulletin of Division of Vegetable Pathology on 'Additional 

 Evidence of the <Jommunicability of Peach Yellows and Peach Rosette.' ") 



The fruit-scab (Fig. 11), which injures many varieties, is discussed for 

 me by Professor L. H. Pammel, of the Iowa Agricultural college: 



" * Thecarcnlio prefers the domesticated to the native varieties of plnms."— C P. Gillette, Bull. !>, In. 

 Exp. Sta. 388 (1890). Other observers confirm this opinion. Professor Gillette finds that in central Iowa 

 the plum gouger (Coccoiorus prunicida) is very injarioas, and it attacke the native more than the domes- 

 tic varieties. 



