THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. ig 



Domestica plums now occupy in America is due, perhaps, to the fact that 

 they do not possess in as high degree as the fruits named above the power 

 of adaptation to the trans-Atlantic environment. Without question the 

 feature of environment most uncongenial to plums in America is the climate. 

 The plum thrives best in an equable climate like that of eastern and southern 

 Europe and of western America, and cannot endure such extremes of 

 heat and cold, wet and dry, as are found in parts of eastern America and 

 in the Mississippi Valley. At best this fruit lacks in what is called con- 

 stitution, or ability to withstand adverse conditions of any kind, whether 

 of climate, culture, insects or fungi. Thus in America this plum suffers 

 severely not only from climate but from several parasites, as curculio, 

 black -knot, leaf-blight, plum-pockets and other pests. 



We find, therefore, that in North America the Domestica plums are 

 confined to favored localities on the Atlantic seaboard, the Great Lakes 

 region and the Pacific coast. In the first named area they are to be found 

 thriving to a limited degree in Nova Scotia and parts of Quebec, some- 

 what in central New England, and particularly well in the fruit- 

 growing sections of New York, especially in the parts of this State where 

 the climate is made equable by large bodies of water. South of New York, 

 excepting in a few localities in Pennsylvania, but few plums of this species 

 are grown. The Domestica plums are grown with indifferent success in 

 southern Ontario and in Michigan, and now and then an orchard is found 

 to the south almost to the Gulf. In the great Valley of the Mississippi 

 and in the states of the plains this plum is hardly known. Westward in 

 the irrigated valleys of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin, the 

 climate is favorable and the European plums are nearly as well-known as 

 in any other portion of the continent excepting the Pacific Coast. 



It is in the last named region that the foreign plum reaches its highest 

 development in the New World. The trees in California, Oregon and 

 Washington are very thrifty and the plums are of large size, handsome . 

 appearance and of high quality. Both tree and fruit in this favored 

 region are free from most of the insect and fungus troubles with which the 

 eastern plum-growers must contend. Curculio and black -knot, scourges of 

 eastern orchards, are not troublesome on the western coast. In this region 

 the Domesticas, practically the only plums cultivated, succeed on either 

 irrigated or naturally watered lands. 



It is probable that some of these plums were introduced into America 

 by the first colonists, but if so, the early records do not show that the fruit 



