THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



Primus amcricana 



I. la. Hon. Soc. Rpt. 287. 1RS7. 2. U.S.D. A. Rpl. 441. 1889. 3. la. Hort. Soc. Rpl. 55, 

 85. 1S90. 4. Cornell Sla. Bui. 38:38, 86. 1892. 5. Wis. Sia. Bui. 63:40, 41. 1897. 6. Am. 

 Pom. Soc. Cat. 24. 1897. 7. Colo. Sta. Bui. 50:37. 1898. 8. la. Sta. Bui. 46:274. 1000. 

 9. Waugh Plum Cult. 151. 1901. 10. Ont. Fr. Gr. Assoc. 144. 1901. 11. Wis. Sta. Bui. 87:13. 

 1901. 12. S. Dak. Sta. Bui. 93:19. 1905. 13. Ohio Sia. Bui. 162:254, 255. 1905. 



This variety is a very satisfactory and widely planted Americana. 

 It is typical of its species; and its foliage, fruit and pit in the color -plate 

 herewith presented all represent Prunus americana very well. The fruit 

 of Hawkeye is more satisfactory than the tree, being both attractive in 

 appearance and pleasant to eat either out of hand or cooked; the chief 

 fault of the fruit is that it seems to be easily infected with brown-rot. The 

 trees are crooked in body and quite too straggling and at the same time 

 too dense in growth to make good orchard plants. It requires very care- 

 ful pruning and training to keep the trees at all manageable. In some of 

 the references given above it is stated that Hawkeye on its owm roots is 

 a better tree than otherwise propagated. This variety belongs m the 

 middle west but it might be grown for home use in northern New York 

 where it is too cold for the European plums. 



Hawkeye is a seedling of Quaker grown by H. A. Terry,' Crescent, 

 Iowa. It first fruited in 1882 and the following year was introduced by 



' H. A. Terry was bom in Cortland County, New York, July 12th, 1826. His parents were 

 from New England having come as pioneers to New York from Worcester, Massachusetts. The 

 spirit of pioneering seems to have been strong in the Terry family for in 1836 the parents moved 

 again to Livingston County, Michigan. The son, leaving his parents in 1845, again went west- 

 ward to Knox County, Illinois, and still again in 1846 farther west to Pottawattamie County, Iowa. 

 After this there were still more wanderings in which Mr. Terry and his family, he having married 

 in 1848, were as far east as New Haven, Connecticut, for two years and again west to several places 

 in Iowa. He finally engaged in the nursery business at Crescent, Iowa in 1857; ^^ lived here for 

 over fifty years, giving to the world his best services in the production of new fruits and flowers, 

 and here his death occurred February 14th, 1909. Mr. Terry was noted as a peony and a plum 

 specialist. Of plums he is the originator of over fifty sorts nearly all from the native species — a 

 record unsurpassed in point of numbers for new varieties by any other plum-breeder. Several of 

 Mr. Terry's plums are of surpassing merit for varieties of their species; among these may be named 

 such well-known sorts as Gold, Hammer, Hawkeye, Nellie Blanche, Crescent City, Downing and 

 Milton. Most of his varieties are offspring of Prunus americana but there are a few from Prunus 

 munsoniana and Prunus hortulana. Unfortunately there is little in regard to Mr. Terry's rnethod 

 of breeding plums on record for he seems to have written or spoken little for publication. He was 

 long a prominent member of the Iowa State Horticultural Society and for a number of years had 

 charge of one of the experiment stations of this society. Of his work with peonies, of which he 

 produced more than one hundred named sorts, and with other plants, space does not permit dis- 

 cussion. The last half of his life of more than four score years was a tireless effort to improve the 

 fruits and flowers of the Mississippi Valley. 



