THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 19 



The European plum has been introduced nearly 300 years, yet it 

 has not become a companion of the apple tree, the cherry tree, the 

 raspberry and the currant in every thrifty farmer's or laborer's yard 

 anywhere in our land, unless it be on the Pacific slope, for the reason 

 that it cannot be depended upon to bear fruit without special treatment. 

 The Japanese plums may become more of a family fruit than the 

 European sorts have become, but their uncertainty of fruitage renders 

 this improbable. We have, however, native species of the plum that, 

 when grown in their proper areas, are capable of supplying plum 

 trees for every farmer's and laborer's garden in our land that shall be 

 as reliable for fruiting as the apple, with little, if any, more special 

 knowledge or care than the apple requires ; of which the fruit is ex- 

 cellent for all culinary purposes, and of which the choicest varieties 

 are scarcely surpassed in delicacy and richness by any fruit of our 

 country, and for which the market demand is rajjidly increasing. 

 The americana plum is hardy, both in tree and flower-bud, through- 

 out the United States and far northward into Canada, The past win- 

 ter its flower-buds endured fifty-two degrees below zero in Manitoba, 

 where the Oldenburg (Duchess) apple, in the same locality, had its 

 last year's growth frozen back three-fourths. Other species of the 

 native plums succeed in the far South and Southwest. 



It may be safely said that no other tree fruit of equal value has so 

 wide a climatic range in North America as the native plums, and 

 throughout the northern Mississippi valley no other tree fruit can 

 be depended upon to yield more dollars per acre in ten-year periods, 

 than these native plums. The native plums, especially of the ameri- 

 cana species, are exceedingly variable. At the risk of incurring the^ 

 ridicule of this the most dignified association of fruit-growers irr 

 America, if not in the world, I make the unqualified statement that 

 the richest and most delicious quality that I have ever tasted in 

 plums has been found in native specimens. It is true that the av- 

 erage americana plum has a thick and often acerb skin, which in 

 objectionable, but there are exceptions to this rule. A few of the 

 choicer varieties, when fully ripe, have a skin nearly or quite as thin 

 as that of the average European or Japanese plum. 



In the americana plum we sometimes find varieties that are per- 

 fect freestones. It should be remembered that, while the European 

 and Japanese plums have been in culture for many centuries, the 

 most highly improved of our native plums are but two or three gen- 

 erations from the wild-plum thicket. When we consider this fact, 

 their i^resent value as a family and commercial fruit certainly offers 

 remarkable promise. There is no reason to doubt that during the 

 coming century the native plums will yield varieties that shall be 



