CHAPTER XIV 



PLUM VABIETIES 



then are the wicker baskets cramm'd 



"With Damask and Armenian and Wax plums." 



— Columella. 



In spite of the fact that the cultivated vari- 

 eties of plums number several thousand, this 

 fruit has never attained the wide popularity 

 that has been accorded our other orchard 

 products. The reason for this has, I think, 

 been overlooked. Of all the fruits indigenous 

 to temperate climates, the plum is the only one 

 that never has been used for making alcoholic 

 beverages. If we will examine the history of 

 any of our fruits we will find that they were 

 first used as a source of supply of the exhilar- 

 ating juice. From the time of old Omar Khay- 

 yam, the Persian poet, with his 



" — Book of verses underneath the Bough, 

 A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread — and Thou 

 Beside me singing in the wilderness — " 



on to the time of the first American colonists, 

 fruit was not eaten but drunk. Had prohibi- 

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