THE PLUMS 



The Plum is justly esteemed one of the most delicious 

 of fruits. When fresh it is excellent for eating raw, for 

 sauce, and for jelly. It is easily canned and when dried 

 the prunes made from certain plums form one of the most 

 important of fruit products. So many types of plums 

 exist that they can be grown in almost any region and 

 the fruit ripens over a very long period. 



The Plum of literature and tradition is the European 

 or Domestica type — the Prunus domestica of the great 

 botanist Linnaeus. The fruit has been grown for so 

 many centuries that it is not known just what wild sort 

 it was originally developed from, though it probably was 

 a wild tree in Asia. This is still the type most generally 

 grown in America, especially in the Eastern and Pacific 

 coast regions, where the climate is not so severe as to 

 prevent its successful growth. These plums have been 

 grown so long, however, and under such varying condi- 

 tions that remarkable variations have been developed, 

 each type of variation being represented by several 

 varieties. 



Classification 



The types of Domestica Plums have been grouped in 

 five distinct classes by Bailey, namely: 



I. The Prunes. These are Plums which have so 

 much sugar in their composition that they can be dried 



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