PLUMS AND PLUM CULTURE 



Systematic Pomology and the Plums 



N the last fifty years, and more 

 especially in the last decade, sci- 

 entific knowledge and horticul- 

 tural practice, marching hand 

 in hand, have made phenom- 

 enal progress. Systematic po- 

 mology, however, has remained 

 pretty much where it was left by 

 the Downings and by the others 

 of that coterie of noble men who founded the 

 American Pomological society, and who first gave 

 form to any branch of horticultural knowledge in 

 America. This will be perfectly, almost painfully, 

 clear when we remember that, whereas Downing's dis- 

 cussions of insect pests and fruit-tree diseases are now 

 as useless as Ben Franklin's printing press, his descrip- 

 I 



