3o6 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



it; and, second, upon what appear to me to be marked differences in the 

 two prunes. A number of years ago I went to Mr. Freeboro's place when 

 prunes were ripe and obtained from him a supply of Pacific primes grown 

 on trees propagated by him from scions taken from the original Pacific 

 tree. I took these prunes to Springbrook and compared them wdth the 

 Willamette grown on Mr. Hoskins' place. I was thoroughly convinced 

 that the two were decidedly different in character, but Mr. Hoskins did 

 not think so. I noticed first a marked difference in the habits of growth 

 of the trees. The Pacific trees were of unvisually vigorous growth and had 

 a decided upright tendency. The Willamette trees were very similar to 

 the Italian in vigor and had the rather spreading habit of growth of the 

 Italian. The Pacific prunes are larger in size than the Willamette and 

 vary much more in size. One of the most decided indications of difference 

 is the far greater tendency to brown-rot of the fruit of the Pacific than is 

 the case with the fruit of the Willamette. This has been observed when 

 scions of the Willamette and of the Pacific have been grafted on the same 

 tree for the purpose of comparison. I have never seen a well dried speci- 

 men of the Pacific, but this may have been the fault of the men who dried 

 the specimens I ha\^e seen. The Willamette dries easily for a prune of its 

 size and gives a larger percentage of dried to fresh fruit than the Italian, 

 according to Mr. Hoskins. 



" I believe the Willamette is well worthy of more attention in the 

 Willamette Valley, whereas the Pacific, on account of its extreme suscep- 

 tibility to the brown-rot, does not appear to be a safe variety here, although 

 when perfect it is a magnificent prune for eating fresh, and one of the 

 very largest known. I am told that in eastern Oregon where climatic con- 

 ditions keep out the brown-rot, the Pacific is proving one of the best varieties 

 for shipping fresh. At the present time the two varieties are mvich confused. 

 Wlien the Pacific prune w^as introduced, Mr. Hoskins and other recognized 

 authorities, pronounced it the Willamette, and nurserymen therefore 

 obtained scions from Willamette treees and sold the propagated trees as 

 Pacifies, and in a more limited way the reverse w^as done. The greater 

 part of the trees supposed to be Pacifies are in fact Willamettes." 



At this Station we have the two plums under discussion, the Pacific 

 having been obtained from Fred E. Young, nurseryman, Rochester, New 

 York, and the Willamette, under the name Pacific, from the Oregon Whole- 

 sale Nursery Company, Salem, Oregon. The differences between the two 

 plums in New York are essentially those given by Mr. Williamson as dis- 

 tinguishing characters in Oregon. 



Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, open-topped, hardy, productive; branches 

 ash-gray, smooth, with small, raised lenticels; branchlets above medium in thickness, 



