THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 389 



than similar kinds from Europe. It is difficult to select from the numer- 

 ous first-rate plums of this group the best varieties to retain in home or 

 commercial orchards. Among these, however, Yellow Gage should be 

 kept for the home orchard at least. It is a rather large fruit, with a beau- 

 tiful color golden-yellow often with a faint blush, with a firm and juicy 

 yet tender flesh and a most refreshing admixture of sweet and sour 

 together with the richness which characterizes the Reine Claude plums. 

 The fruits come, too, at a time when the market is not overstocked with 

 these fine plums and the season is particularly long. A review of the tree- 

 characters in the description which follows shows that in the main they 

 are good though some complain that the variety is not productive. This 

 precariousness in bearing, together with the tender skin which keeps Yellow 

 Gage from standing shipment well, probably precludes the variety from 

 a high place in a commercial list but does not prevent its being a most 

 desirable plum for home planting. 



This excellent old variety was probably one of the first plums to 

 originate in America. It came from a Reine Claude pit planted, with many 

 others, by William Prince 1 in 1783 in the celebrated Prince nurseries at Flush- 

 ing, Long Island. Despite its early origin and fine qualities it has never had 



'William Prince, born in 1725, was the second proprietor of the famous Prince nursery at 

 Flushing, Long Island, a nursery established by his father, Robert Prince, about 1730. The first 

 of the American Princes was one of the Huguenots who settled at New Rochelle and on the north 

 shore of Long Island, bringing with them a great number of French fruits and the love of the French 

 people for horticulture. The nursery, one of the first, and certainly the most important one in 

 America at this time, grew rapidly until the Revolutionary War. The establishment was of such 

 public importance that during a part of the war the British placed a guard over it to protect it from 

 depredation. With the establishment of peace came an increased trade and the nursery soon 

 attained even greater prominence than before the war. An effort was made by William Prince, 

 then in charge, to import all of the valuable European fruits beside which he grew many seedlings, 

 selecting carefully from them new varieties. Thus in 1790 twenty-five quarts of Reine Claude plum 

 pits were planted from which came Yellow Gage, Imperial Gage and probably the Washington plum. 

 Prince died in 1802, his business having been divided between two sons; Benjamin Prince keeping 

 the original place under the name The Old American Nursery and William Prince occupying a new 

 place called the Linnean Botanic Garden and Nursery. William Prince seems not to have had the 

 inclination to write as did his son and grandson but had, even more than they, business energy. 

 His European exportations and importations made his name famous in horticulture abroad as well 

 as at home. To him Americans owe the introduction of many varieties of foreign fruits and orna- 

 mental plants; his was the first of the great nurseries of the country, soon to be followed by others, 

 to import and exchange plants with foreign countries; his is the first recorded attempt to breed 

 fruits in America on an extensive scale and the fact that the three plums sent out by him are still 

 valuable varieties indicates his judgment as to worth in fruits. The reputation made by his son, 

 William Prince, the second, and by William Robert Prince, a grandson, as writers on horticultural 

 subjects, is in large measure due to the information acquired for them and the training given them 

 by the William Prince of this sketch. 



