NEW PLUMS AND PRUNES 135 



they were attached to their own varieties- 

 brought plums from Europe, known botanically 

 as Prunus domestica. 



The plums, like the settlers who brought them, 

 found the adopted country hospitable. They 

 thrived and multiplied. Seeds sprang into new 

 varieties in the fence corners and some of them 

 bore better fruit than the colonists had seen in 

 Europe. 



It was natural that these new varieties should 

 spread while the less valuable ones were neg- 

 lected. When a farmer journeyed from Ply- 

 mouth to the home of a friend near Boston and 

 saw there a plum better than the one he had 

 brought from Europe, he secured grafts and gave 

 the better variety the preference on his own farm. 



Thus by the exchange of grafting wood, new 

 varieties of plums were distributed among the 

 pioneer farmers of the new land. 



THE SHARE OF EUROPE 



To-day there are at least a hundred improved 

 varieties of the European type of plum, all of 

 which, up to the last few years, originated from 

 chance seedlings in the gardens of the first 

 settlers. Among the best of these are the 

 Washington and the Jefferson, both superior 

 varieties. 



