174 Plums and Plum Culture 



color dull red; dots many, yellow, conspicuous; bloom bluish; 

 skin thick; flesh yellow; stone medium large, oval, slightly 

 flattened, cling; quality fair to good. 



One of the oldest native plums known ; originated in 1814 

 in Knox county, Tennessee. Not so valuable as its wide repu- 

 tation might indicate. Bailey gives the following history of 

 this variety: "Said by Downing to have originated with Mr. 

 Miner, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, but this is a mistake. 

 The seed which produced the Miner plum was planted in 1814, 

 in Knox county, Tennessee, by William Dodd, an officer under 

 General Jackson. Dodd appears to have had two batches of 

 seed, one of which he gathered the year before upon Talaposa 

 creek, and the other given him by an Indian chief. It is not 

 clear from which lot this plum sprung. The plum gained 

 some notice when it came into bearing, and was known as Old 

 Hickory and General Jackson. In 1823 or 1824 Dodd moved 

 to Illinois and settled near Springfield, taking some sprouts of 

 his plum with him. The plums soon attracted attention 

 among Dodd's neighbors, and the variety was called in its new 

 home William Dodd and Chickasaw Chief. The year follow- 

 ing William Dodd's removal to Illinois, his brother moved to 

 Galena, Illinois, and took some of the plums. About Galena 

 the plum became known as the Hinckley. I do not know how 

 the name Miner came to be applied to it, but Downing's ref- 

 erence to Mr. Miner of Pennsylvania — who probably grew 

 and disseminated it — undoubtedly explains it. It is said by 

 D. B. Wier that the late Hon. James G. Soulard of Galena 

 introduced this plum to general cultivation, and I repeated 

 this statement last year_ in a discussion of the Soulard crab. 

 (For a fuller history of the Miner, see A. Giddings in Iowa 

 Agricultural Report, 1871, 332.) Downing gives Hinckley, 

 Isabel, Gillett, Townsend and Robinson as synonyms of 

 Miner. The Robinson now known is a very different fruit." 



Nebraska. — Fruit oval ; size medium ; cavity shallow ; 

 suture a line ; color red ; dots many, fine, yellow ; bloom 

 blue ; skin thick, tough ; flesh yellow ; stone medium size, 

 oval, slightly flattened, cling; quality fair to good. 



Oren. — "Form truncate, flattened, irregular; size large; 

 apex oblique, basin slightly depressed ; cavity none, flat ; 

 suture a dark red line not indented ; surface smooth, not 

 shiny; color greenish-yellow, yellowish-red to dark red; dots 

 grayish marbling; bloom thin, purplish; skin thick, tough, 

 acid, very slightly astringent; flesh firm, deep orange yellow; 

 stone large oval, flat winged, adherent; flavor pleasant acid; 

 quality good." — Craig. 



The history of this variety is given by Mr. Oren as fol- 

 lows: "In the fall of 1876, I came from Benton county to this 



