76 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



shown at the State Fair of 1888 gave assurance that by cultivation and 

 by selecting seedlings valuable varieties can be obtained. It is stated that 

 in Sierra County the wild plum is the only plum which finds a market at 

 good prices, and that cultivated gages, blue and egg plums scarcely pay 

 for gathering. The wild plum makes delicious preserves." 



In its typical form Prunus subcordata is a shrub and is often only a 

 low bush but under the most favorable conditions it attains the dimension 

 and shape of a small tree. In its roundish, roughish leaves it so closely 

 resembles the Old World types of plums that it becomes the nearest 

 approach to them to be found among our American species. But in the 

 globular, red or purple subacid fruit it betrays its affinity to the 

 American plums, as it does also in the fiat, sometimes turgid, smooth 

 stone to which the flesh tenaciously clings. The flowers are white, fading 

 to rose and borne abundantly, making the plant an attractive ornamental 

 in blooming time as it is also in the autumn when the foliage turns to bril- 

 liant red, scarlet or crimson with touches of yellow. The fruit is some- 

 times so poor in quality as to be inedible but on the other hand is some- 

 times quite equal to some of the cultivated plums, especially in its botan- 

 ical variety, Kelloggii. 



That the fruit is capable of improvement by the selection of seedling 

 varieties and useful in hybridizing with other species can hardly be doubted. 

 Luther Burbank, under date of December 6, 1909, writes in this regard 

 as follows: 



" The Prunus subcordata, as it grows wild, bears very heavily even 

 on bushes two and three feet in height, bending the bushes flat on the 

 ground when the fruit is ripe. This is a very beautiful sight. The wild 

 ones, although almost invariably bright red and spherical, are sometimes, 

 though rarely found, yellow. When the seed of the yellow fruit is planted 

 a certain portion of red ones are produced, but all, practically, of the same 

 size and quality as the original. The trees of Subcordata in the wild state 

 are greatly variable in growth, generally much more so than in the fruit. 

 The fruit, however, varies much in quality, but it is promiscuously gathered 

 by those living in the vicinity of the plum grounds and considered most 

 excellent for cooking. I commenced working on this species about twenty- 

 two years ago and have not carried it on as extensively as with the Mari- 

 tima, as I found it subject to plum-pockets, but by very careful selection 

 I have produced most magnificent plums, oval in form or round, sweet 

 as honey or sweet as the French Prune, greatly enlarged in size, tree im- 

 proved in growth and enormously productive, the different varieties ripen- 

 ing through a long season. Most of these are light and dark red. Some of 



