Ill 



THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN PLUMS 

 AND CHERRIES 



THE early records mention plums nearly as fre- 

 quently as they speak of grapes. In fact, the abun- 

 dance of many kinds of wild fruits made a great 

 impression upon all the settlers of America, from the 

 valley of the St. Lawrence to Georgia. The wild 

 plum tree was seen and admired by Jacques Cartier, 

 upon his visit to the St. Lawrence River in 1535. In 

 the preliminary reconnoissance of the Cape Cod region, 

 various fruit plants were encountered. Bradford and 

 Winslow, in their journal, speak of "vines everywhere, 

 cherry trees, plum trees, and many others which we 

 know not." Edward Winslow writes to a friend in 

 England in 1621, from Plymouth, of "grapes, white and 

 red, and very sweet and strong also ; strawberries, 

 gooseberries, raspas, &c.; plums of three sorts, white 

 black, and red, being almost as good as a damson." 

 Francis Higgiuson, in his "New-Englands Plantation," 

 1630, mentions the following amongst the natural 

 productions of the country: "Mulberries, Plums, 

 Raspberries, Corrance, Chesnuts, Filberds, Walnuts, 

 Smalnuts, Hurtleberries and Hawes of White -thorne 

 naere as good as our Cherries in England, they grow 

 in plentie here." Thomas Morton, in his "New English 

 Canaan," 1632, makes the following reference: "Plum- 

 trees, of this kind there are many ; some that beare 

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