STATE HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 373 



The following paper was read by the secretary: 



NATIVE PLUMS. 



Bif 0. M. Lord, Minnesota City. 



The origin of the European plums can only be conjectured. 

 The origin of Prunus Americana may be given in the words of 

 "Topsy, " "They just growed." The princiijal use of all kinds 

 is for cooking. Comparatively few are used for dessert purposes. 

 Few persons are aware of the commercial importance of some 

 varieties. For the fiscal year ending last June were imported 

 into the United States from the vicinity of the Mediterranean 

 nearly 65,000,000 pounds of j^runes, and the estimated product 

 of California was 1,500,000 lbs. at the wholesale price of four cents 

 per pound, amounting to .$2,500,000. When the probabilities of 

 of our native plums are fully realized we shall have no occasion 

 to make such importations. Does this sound visionary ? I may 

 ask who would have dared to predict, thirty years ago, the small 

 fruit business, of even one day, of Chicago, Minneapolis or 

 St. Paul. Then, a carload would have supplied the market 

 of either i)lace. Now, thousands of bushels are daily mar- 

 keted in their season. Fifteen thousand tons of strawberries 

 were received in Chicago last year. 



It is true that we have not, at present, a native plum closely 

 corresponding to the foreign xjrune. but we have them so similar 

 that slight hybridizing will accomplish it; and at the same time 

 extend their culture over a larger area than that of any other 

 perfectly hardy fruit bearing tree. The whole j)lum tamily is nat- 

 urally very nearly allied, and the common wild plum is indigenous 

 in all the soils and adapted to all the climatic variations of the 

 country from east to west, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake 

 Winnipeg, and possibly further. The wild parent of the Con- 

 cord grape did not furnish as promising a basis for hybridizing 

 as do many of the native plums lately brought to notice by cul- 

 tivation, and some of these naturally compare favorably with 

 European varieties. The Green Gage is generally considered 

 as the standard of excellence for dessert, and the Damson for 

 cooking. No native, as yet, claims to reach the quality of the 

 Gage, but for cooking the Damsons have many a rival. The 

 most serious obstacle to the general cultivation of plums is sup- 

 posed to be the curculio. Advantage has sometimes been taken 

 of this prevalent belief in advertising new kinds as curculio 



