320 



THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



Though not a leading variety, Quackenboss is a prominent one in 

 the list of commercial sorts for New York. Its fruits possess to a high 

 degree the characters which make a good market plum; they are of large 

 size, averaging nearly an inch and a half in diameter; round-oval, a better 

 shape for the markets than the prune shapes; very prepossessing in color 

 — a handsome, dark purple with heavy bloom; the flesh is tender and juicy 

 with a sweet, pleasant flavor making it one of the good purple plums, 

 though not one of the best in quality. The tree is large, vigorous, hardy, 

 with a round and spreading top. This gives it great bearing capacity 

 but though productive in the Station orchard, the variety does not have 

 the reputation of being fruitful and fails chiefly as a commercial sort for 

 this reason. It is a late-maturing variety and comes on the market at 

 a time when plums are wanted for home canning, the demand for this 

 purpose, for which it is most suitable, helping greatly its sale. The variety 

 has two peculiarities; the petals are comparatively distinct from each 

 other giving the flower, or a tree in flower, an odd appearance; and the 

 leaves are remarkably variable in size. 



It is not quite certain when or where this variety first came to notice. 

 C. Reagles, a competent authority, of Schenectady, New York, in describ- 

 ing the Quackenboss for The Cultivator in 1858, says " There is a seedling 

 tree of this identical sort in the garden of Mr. S. C. Groot of this city, which 

 is about thirty years old." If true, this puts its origin in Schenectady at 

 about 1828. But beyond question a Mr. Quackenboss of Greenbush, New 

 York, introduced the variety, though some years later, and it has taken 

 his name. In 187 1, the American Pomological Society placed the Quack- 

 enboss on its recommended fruit list. 



Tree very large and vigorous, round-topped, hardy, productive; branches numer- 

 ous, ash-gray, the trunk rough but the Hmbs smooth, with smaUish raised lenticels; 

 branchlets thick, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to brownish-drab over 

 red, dull, pubescent, with numerous, small lenticels; leaf -buds of medium size and 

 length, pointed, free. 



Leaves flattened, obovate or oval, variable in size averaging one and seven-eighths 

 inches wide by three and five-eighths inches long ; upper surface very dark green, nearly 

 glabrous, with a grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex obtuse, 

 base tapering, margin finely serrate, with small black glands; petiole five-eighths inch 

 long, pubescent, faintly tinged red, glandless or with from one to four small, globose, 

 greenish-yellow glands usually on the stalk. 



Blooming season intermediate in time and length; flowers appearing after the 

 leaves, one and one-eighth inches across, white, with a yellow tinge at the tips of the 



