EFFECTS OF CULTIVATION. IOI 



back at the many once valuable, but now worthless kinds, and 

 eat, as well as compare the color of fruit from cultivated trees 

 with that of the same variety long in sod, to be convinced 

 that Mr. Green's Baldwin tree is a fac-simile of a most re- 

 markable example of change and deterioration in the case of 

 the Gonzales plum, originally a fruit of highest quality, but 

 now so dry and tasteless that in spite of its fine appearance 

 it is almost unsalable. The proof that cultivation has been 

 the cause is beyond doubt, and is as follows : Six years ago I 

 bought from Mr. F. T. Ramsey, of Austin, the original intro- 

 ducer, and an ultra-clean culturist, a Gonzales plum tree 

 that had been propagated from trees long under cultivation. 

 This, after root-pruning and planting in a mowed Bermuda 

 grass sod, fruited the second and third year, but the quality 

 was so poor that I top-budded it with the Shiro plum, about 

 five feet above the ground, leaving all the Gonzales shoots 

 below. The fourth year it bore again, and the fruit was so 

 much better that I was greatly surprised. I did not sus- 

 pect the cause until last summer, when the Gonzales part 

 of the tree was again loaded with large, beautiful bright 

 scarlet plums, of such superior quality that I regretted greatly 

 having top-budded it, even with Shiro, a fine, large yellow 

 Japan variety, which was also loaded, and I fell to won- 

 dering what could be the cause of the marked change. Nat- 

 urally, being a crank on the subject, the integrity of the sur- 

 face root system presented itself, and I set out to confirm it. 

 Knowing almost every fruit tree in the town, I went from one 

 Gonzales to another, and, to my delight, found all the sod 

 trees loaded with bright scarlet plums of fine quality, like mine, 

 while all the cultivated ones were a dull maroon-red color and 

 not fit to eat. Knowing that Frank Ramsey, who has often 

 been denounced for introducing such an inferior plum, would 

 be pleased with my discovery, I sent him some of my Gon- 

 zales at once, with the confirmation of my theory, and here 

 is his reply: "Your Gonzales plums came to-day, July 15, 

 and are typical in size, color and fine quality of the first speci- 

 mens sent me from the town of Gonzales, and I believe, 

 as you say, that they grew on hard, uncultivated ground. 



