392 



THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



flesh deep yellow, juicy, rich, sweet; very good; stone large, oval, flattened, clinging. 



Apparently an improvement over Hawkeye. 



Advance. Americana, i. Waugh Plum Cult. 142. 1901. 2. Kerr Cat. 1902-3. 



Grown by Theodore Williams, Benson, Nebraska, and introduced by J. W. Kerr, 

 Denton, Maryland, in 1902. Fruit large, oval; cavity very shallow; suture a line; 

 apex slightly depressed; dark red; dots many, conspicuous, yellow; good; clingstone; 

 tree vigorous and productive; said to be resistant to rot. 



African. Angustifolia varians. i. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 160. 1881. 2. Cornell Sta. 

 Bui. 38:60, 86. 1892. 3. Waugh Plum Cult. 192, 193 fig. 1901. 



Originated with G. Onderdonk' of Texas and introduced by him in 1870; said to 

 be one of the best varieties of this species. Tree small, spreading; fruit medium to 

 large, roundish to oblong, dull, dark red; dots large and small, white; skin thin, tough; 

 flesh yellow, soft, juicy, subacid; good; stone clinging; mid-season. 

 Alabama. Triflora X ?. i. Cornell Sta. Bui. 175:154- 1899. 2. Waugh Plum Cult. 

 201. 1 90 1. Normaiid No. 5 2 



Sent out by J. L. Normand, Marksville, Louisiana. Fruit of medium size, heart- 

 shaped, light yellow with pink cheek; bloom thin; mid-season; fruits drop before ripe 

 but mature after falling; good; tree spreading, twigg}^; branches smooth, glossy, 

 zigzag. 



Albany Beauty. Domestica. i. Lortd. Hort. Soc. Cat. 146. 1831. 2. Thomas Am. 

 Fruit Cult. 327. 1S4Q. 3. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 420. 1889. 



Belle d'Alhany 3. Denniston's Albany Beauty 2, 3. Denniston's Albany 1. 



' Gilbert Onderdonk was bom in Sharon, New York, September 30, 1829. As a boy he showed 

 a taste for horticulture and while a lad planted seeds of potatoes, made selections and developed 

 several varieties more or less widely grown in the middle of the last century. Mr. Onderdonk was 

 educated in the Cortland Academy at Cortland, N. Y., and in the State Normal College at Albany, 

 After having taught in the district schools of New York for a few years, he found it necessary to 

 go to a warmer climate because of bronchial trouble and in 1851 moved to Texas, where he 

 became a cowboy, a rancher and finally a fruit-grower. In the region in which he had settled 

 there were wild grapes and wild plums in abundance. The luxuriance of growth and the number 

 of these fruits so impressed him with the possibilities of fruit culture in southwestern Te.xas that 

 he began planting fruit trees. Of necessity these came from the north and for most part failed. 

 Not to be discouraged, Mr. Onderdonk began the improvement of the wild varieties about his home. 

 From 1855 to the present time his work has been the testing for the region in which he lives, of every 

 variety of fruit to be had in Europe and America, and the improvement of the wild fruits growing 

 about him. The plum, in particular, has received attention from Mr. Onderdonk, and his chief 

 work with this fruit has been the hybridization of Triflora and Munsoniana varieties from the crossing 

 of which he has grown some valuable plums. In 1887, the United States Department of Agriculture 

 employed Mr. Onderdonk to work with plums, grapes and peaches in the southwest, the results 

 of which are to be found in the reports of the Department immediately following the year mentioned. 

 He has also done considerable work for the French in sending resistant vines to France. Mr. 

 Onderdonk is one of several workers in horticulture who have unremittingly served Texas and the 

 southwest in the production of new varieties of fruits and in testing varieties from other regions. 

 The value of the foundation these men have laid for horticulture in the southwest cannot now 

 be estimated. 



