VARIETIES OF PLUMS 



U. P. HEDRIOK 

 Horticulturist, New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 



The following, in the order named, are the leading commercial 

 varieties of plums in New York: Bradshaw, including the Nia- 

 gara which is identical, Reine Claude, Italian Prune, German 

 Prune, Lombard, Shropshire Damson, Grand Duke, Washington, 

 and Gueii. Two Japanese varieties, Abundance and Burbank, are 

 as widely distributed as any, but these are seldom grown exten- 

 sively in commercial plantations, and their popularity is on the 

 wane. Varieties of native plums are seldom grown in New York, 

 although now and then they are found in home collections and in 

 a few small commercial plantations. Wild Goose is more often 

 planted than any other native plum. 



The fruit of the Japanese and native, plums is so inferior to that 

 of the Domestica, or European type, for both market and domestic 

 purposes that varieties of these are not likely to take the place of 

 European plums. Neither the Japanese nor the native plums can 

 be said, now, to be on probation, for they have been^grown long 

 enough so that both grower and consumer are familiar with them. 

 In the case of the Japanese sorts at least, the varieties have been 

 greatly overpraised and they are suffering from the reaction. We 

 have, then, in the following description, to deal chiefly with 

 varieties of the European, or Domestica, plum. 



ABUNDAft CE 



Abundance is the best of the Japanese plums. Two assets 

 that have given the variety its great popularity are adaptability 

 to a wide diversity of soils and climates and, as its name implies, 

 an abundance of fruit. It bears heavily and yearly. As a market 

 plnm, Abundance has several faults. It cannot be shipped well 

 and neither does it keep ; it is much subject to brown rot and 

 matures unevenly. The fruit of this variety should be picked 

 '(fore it is quite ripe, as it develops its flavor best when so picked 

 and the rot and the dropping are thus avoided to some extent. 



