THE TLUM IN KANSAS. 



107 



named seedlings are coming to be known to experimenters, and the 

 time must be near at hand when a varied American progeny will 

 come. . . . Unfortunately, the Kelsey was the first Japanese 

 plum to become known in this country, and, as it is hardy only upon 

 the Pacific coast and south of Virginia, it became a general impres- 

 sion that the species is not adapted to cultivation in the north. The 

 varieties which are now known to be hardy in the plum regions of 

 New York and Connecticut are Burbank, Abundance, Willard, Ogon, 

 Satsuma, Berger, Chabot, and Yosebe, and most others give promise 

 of hardiness. Doctor Dennis reports Burbank and Ogon to have 

 borne at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after having experienced a temperature 

 twenty-six degrees below zero. Early blooming will probably prove 

 to be a more serious weakness of these plums than lack of hardiness. 



The season of these plums varies considerable. The earliest to 

 mature in central New York is the little Berger, which ripens the 

 middle of July. The earliest of what may be called the market 

 varieties, in this latitude, seems to be Willard, which colors sufficiently 

 for market about the 15th of July in ordinary seasons, and which is 

 fully ripe for eating a week later. Ogon follows, coming in about the 

 1st of August, or sometimes late in July, or about ten days ahead of 

 Wild Goose. Late in August, or very early in September, the Abun- 

 dance is ready. Burbank ripens here about the first or second week 

 in September. 



As a class, the Japanese plums are long keepers. Even when fully 

 colored and grown and fit to eat, some varieties will keep nearly two 

 weeks, most will keep a week, and some, if not all of the varieties, 

 ripen up well if picked rather green, after the manner of a pear, 

 although they may suffer in quality from such treatment. Willard, 

 picked when beginning to color on the exposed side, I have kept nine 

 days in good condition in a warm room with no attempt to preserve 

 them ; Abundance picked August 21, when well colored, began to 

 decay September 2 ; Burbanks, partly colored and picked August 24, 

 were placed in a tight box in a warm room, and on September 5 they 

 were nearly all in perfect condition and had colored well, but even 

 then were not fully ripe ; a red plum, much like Berckmans, kept 

 from September 18 to October 1. J. H. Hale, of Connecticut, reports 

 keeping Satsuma two weeks in his office in good condition, and they 

 were fairly ripe when picked. 



Varieties. — An attempt will now be made to describe the varieties 

 of Japanese plums which are known in North America. The nomen- 

 clature is so much confused and many of the varieties so imperfectly 

 known, that I cannot hope to have arrived at just conclusions in re- 

 gard to the proper names and descriptions of all of them ; but the 



