PLUM 



PLUM 



1373 



8. The Sand Plum, Prunus angustifolia, var. Watnoni. 

 Native to Kansas and Nebraska. A bush-like species, 

 little known in cultivation. A hybrid of this and the 

 Western Sand Cherry is the Utah Hybrid Cherry. 



9. The Beach Plum, Primus maritima. Native to the 

 coast from New Brunswick to Virginia. In cultivation 

 represented by the unimportant Bassett's American; 

 also as an ornamental plant. 



10. The Pacific coast Plum, Prunus subcordafa. 

 Native to Oregon and California. Sparingly known in 

 cultivation, chiefly in the form known as the Sisson 

 Plum (var. Kelloggil.) 



The Plum of history is Prunus domestica. It is to 

 this species that general pomological literature applies. 

 It gives us the prunes (which see). Perhaps it would 

 be serviceable to classify the Domestica Plums into five 

 general groups, although any classification is arbitrary 

 at certain points : 



(a) Prunes, characterized by sweet firm flesh, and 

 capable of making a commercial dried product. They 

 may be of anj'^ color, although blue-purple prunes are 

 best known. Some of the prunes are grown in the 

 East as ordinary market Plums, being sold in the 

 fresh state. Almost any Plum can be made into dried 

 prunes, but the varieties used commercially for this 

 purpose constitute a more or less distinct class of firm 

 and thick-fleshed kinds. In the East, prune is nothing 

 more than a varietal name. See Prune. 



(h) Damsons, comprising very small, firm Plums of 

 various colors, generally borne in clusters, the leaves 

 mostly small. The run-wild Plums of old roadsides 

 and farmyards are mostly of the Damson type. 

 Fig. 185fi. 



(c) The green gages, comprising various small, 

 green or yellow-green Plums, of spherical form and 

 mostly of high quality. Reine Claude is the common- 

 est representative of this group in the East. The 

 name Green Gage often stands for a group rather than 

 for a variety. 



(d) Large yellow Plums, such as Coe Golden Drop, 

 Washington, and the like. 



(e) Large colored Plums, including the various 

 red, blue, and purple varieties, like the blue prunes, 

 Lombard, Bradshaw, Quackenboss, etc. 



The Japanese Plums (Prunus tri flora) differ from 

 the Domesticas in having longer, thinner, smooth and 

 mostly shining leaves, smooth twigs, a greater tendency 

 to the production of lateral fruit-buds on the annual 

 growth, and mostly rounder or shorter fruits with col- 

 ors running more to cherry-reds and light yellows. 

 Most of the varieties are as hardy as the Domestica 

 series. The Japanese varieties are important because 

 they add variety to the list, and especially because they 

 are rich in very early kinds, and the fruit is so firm that 



now believed to rejjresent a hybrid class), represent a 

 wide range of varieties. Those from Prunus Americana 

 parentage are very hardy and are adapted to regions in 

 which the Domestica and Japanese types are tender, 

 as in northern New England, parts of Canada, and the 

 northern Plains states. Those partaking strongly of 

 P. angustifolia parentage, and the greater part of the 



18j1. Fliim— Peter Yellow Gage (X 3^). 



it carries well; aside from this, the trees are vigorous 

 and very productive, and they are less liable to injuries 

 from black-knot and curciilio than the Domesticas are. 



The native Plums, chiefly offspring of Prunus Amer- 

 icana, P. angustifolia and P. hortulana (the last name 



1852. Plum— Fellenbere or Italian Prune (X 3^2). 



Hortulanas, thrive well in the South, where the climate 

 is too continuously hot for other Plums or where the 

 fruit-rot fungus is too prevalent. 



Plum-growing. — The Plum thrives on a variety of 

 soils. The Domesticas generally do best when planted 

 upon clay loam. They usually thrive best on lands 

 which are suited to pears, or on the heavier lands to 

 which apples are adapted. Yet there are many varie- 

 ties which grow well on lands that are comparatively 

 light or even almost sandy. The Americanas thrive 

 best in a rather moist soil, and mulching is often very 

 favorable to the size and quality of the fruit. 



The stocks upon which Plums are grown are very va- 

 rious. By far the greater number of the trees in the 

 North are now grown upon the Myrobalan stock, which 

 is a species of rather slow-growing Plum, native to 

 southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia. This is 

 the stock that is sometimes recommended in the older 

 fruit books for the making of dwarf trees ; but unless 

 the top is kept well headed in, the trees generally make 

 normal growth upon it. Trees grown upon this root are 

 usually larger and finer at one or two years of age than 

 those grown upon other Plum stocks, and the probability 

 is that they are nearly as useful from the grower's stand- 

 point as any other. However, there are some varie- 

 ties that overgrow the Myrobalan, and the stock is 

 likely to sprout from the ground and thereby cause 

 trouble. Probably the most ideal stock for Domesticas, 

 from the standpoint of the grower, is the Domestica 

 itself, but seeds of it are more difficult to secure, the 

 stock is more variable and it is more likely to be injured 

 in the nursery row by leaf fungi; therefore, as a matter 

 of practice, the Myrobalan has very generally supplanted 

 it. In the southern states the peach is largely used as: 

 a stock upon which to grow Plums, and it seems to be 

 gaining favor in the North. It is undoubtedly a very 

 excellent stock for sandy lands, and, in fact, is proba- 

 bly better for such lands than the Myrobalan itself. 

 Some varieties — of which Lombard and French Dam- 

 son are examples— do not take well on the peach. The 

 Japanese Plums are commonly worked upon the peach. 

 The Marianna stock, which is much recommended in 

 the South, has not found favor in the North. Some 

 varieties of Plums are such slow and crooked growers 

 in the nurseries that it is advisable to top-graft or 

 bud them on some strong and straight stock. The Lom- 

 bard is no doubt the best stock for this purpose now 

 grown by nurserymen. The old Union Purple is one of 

 the best stocks, but it is not much grown at the present 



