THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 145 



dots on the fruit instead of the yellowish dots commonly found on the 

 plums of this species. The fruit of Ames is very attractive in color, 

 the quality is fair, it keeps and ships well and it is fairly free from rot, 

 characters which make it desirable where the native plums are grown. 

 This variety was produced by Professor J. L. Budd ' of Ames, Iowa, 

 by crossing De Soto with pollen of a " large Japanese plum received from 

 Oregon." Fora long while it was known as De Soto x Oregon No. 3 and 

 as Japan Hybrid No. 3, but was named Ames by Professor John Craig, now 

 of Cornell University. 



Tree of medium size, spreading, dense-topped, hardy, productive; branches rough - 

 ish, thorny, the trunk shaggy, dark ash-brown, with numerous, large, raised lenticels; 

 branchlets willowy, thick, long, with long internodes, green changing to dark chestnut- 

 red, glossy, glabrous, thickly strewn with conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf- 

 buds small, short, obtuse, plump, appressed. 



Leaves falling early, flattened, oval, two inches wide, four inches long; upper sur- 

 face dark green, glabrous, slightly rugose; lower surface light green, pubescent; apex 

 taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin coarsely serrate, the serrations ending in hair-like 



1 Professor Joseph Lancaster Budd was a native of New York, having been born July 3, 1835, 

 at Peekskill, Westchester County. On his father's side he was of French ancestry, but his mother 

 was of English descent, a member of the Lancaster family, early settlers on the Hudson River. He 

 was educated in the public schools of Monticello, Monticello Academy and at Hiram College, though 

 he did not finish at the last named institution because of financial distress at home. In 1857 the 

 young man moved west and for a year taught in an academy at Rockford, Illinois, and in the 

 Wheaton schools of the same state. In 1858 he moved to Benton County, Iowa, where he estab- 

 lished the Benton County Orchards and Nurseries. He soon became identified with horticulture 

 in Iowa, especially through its State Horticultural Society, an organization of which he was secre- 

 tary from 1873 to 1885 and from 1892 to 1895, serving in all seventeen years. In 1876 he was 

 elected to the chair of Horticulture and Forestry in the Iowa Agricultural College, a position which 

 he held until 1899, when he retired as professor emeritus, having spent twenty-two years in pioneer 

 work in this college. In 1882 Professor Budd visited Russia to study the hardy plants of that country 

 and imported from there many varieties of fruit, as well as other plants, which he thought suited 

 to the climate of the Northwest. After his return his work was largely given up to originating and 

 testing varieties which he thought would prove of value to the States of the Plains. He was pre- 

 eminent in America for his work with Russian fruits and was one of the first to see the possibilities 

 of our native plums. The frequency with which his name is mentioned in this book as a breeder 

 of hardy fruits indicates his interest in securing plums adapted tc the region in which he lived. 

 The horticultural library of Charles Downing, by the wish of the owner, was given to the Iowa 

 Agricultural College with the expectation that Professor Budd would revise Downing's famous 

 Fruits and Trees of America. Ill health prevented the accomplishment of this task, although as 

 senior author he published, in 1902, the American Horticultural Manual in two volumes. During 

 the greater part of his active life he was a constant correspondent of the horticultural press- 

 Professor Budd was a teacher as well as a pomologist and did much for American pomology in 

 imparting to the men who came in contact with him both knowledge and enthusiasm. He died in 

 Phoenix, Arizona, December 26, 1904. 



