The Canadian Horticulturist. 



JAPAN PLUMS. 



F these fine and splendid plums I wish to state that my experience is 

 limited, but so far as tested on my ground they far exceed my expec- 

 tations, andl believe this is true in all parts of the United States 

 where they have been tested. No fruit of recent introduction is 

 meeting the expectations of fruit growers throughout the entire 

 country equal to these oriental plums. Their high quality, size of 

 fruit, smallness of pit, earliness in bearing, great productiveness, 

 handsome color, freedom from insect pest, long keeping and shipping qualities, 

 recommend them as fit companions for our finest natives. 



These Japanese plums so far on my ground have been a surprise to me, 

 especially their power to endure a low temperature, having stood 26 degrees 

 below zero without showing a tinge of frost, and remaining healthy to the terminal 

 bud. The past season the Burbank and Ogon bore a heavy crop for such 

 young trees, and these same trees that bore so heavily this year, are extremely 

 full of fruit buds for the coming crop next year ; this indicates great productive- 

 ness, and these plums bid fair to be heavy annual bearers. Just why these 

 fruits, from their far off island home in the Pacific Ocean, with a mild and genial 

 climate, should have such power of endurance in our cold continental climate, one 

 thousand miles from the ocean influence that they have been surrounded with, 

 has been a puzzle to me ; but after watching them side by side with our hardy 

 natives the past four years, and witnessing their splendid behavior, I have been 

 forced to the conclusion that there was once a close relationship between our 

 natives and these Japanese introductions, and that in the preglacial climate they 

 had a common origin in North America. Their habits and growth are so 

 much more in harmony with our natives than those from Europe, that I am 

 quite sure at one time ancient America and Japan were closely related, and 

 either the ancient Japan climate was more in harmony with our present diversi- 

 fied climate, or these plums and our natives had a common origin in North 

 America. Such hardy Chickasas as Golden Beauty, Honey Drop, Chas. Downing, 

 Col. Wilder, and Wild Goose, also of the Miner group such plums as Miner, 

 Hammer and Rockfort are connecting links that chain our native plants to some 

 of these oriental sorts like Satsuma, Burbank, Yellow Japan, Ogon, etc. The 

 points of similarity noted are early shedding of leaves and maturity of wood 

 early in the fall like our natives, multiple of leaf buds like native sorts named 

 above, also color and roughness of bark, and fibrous condition of inside of fruit. 

 There doubtless are many more points of resemblance that will reveal them- 

 selves as we more closely study and compare with our natives, however, we 

 must not expect too close a resemblance for they have been separated for 

 thousands of years, and the conditions that have surrounded them were so 



