November 4, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



523 



The Sunflowers (Helianthus) had two papers devoted to 



them — one by Mr. D. Dewar, of Kew, who dealt with the 



botany and history of cultivated Helianthi ; the other by 



Mr. E. H. Jenkins, who discussed their cultivation. Mr. 



Dewar's paper is so interesting that I will defer my 



remarks upon it for another occasion. The necessity for 



replanting frequently and manuring heavily for all the 



Sunflowers was emphasized by Mr. Jenkins, for, although 



they will grow in the poorest soil, they amply repay 



liberal treatment. He stated that it is possible to reduce 



the height of the tall-growing sorts by cutting back the 



stems to within about six inches of the soil early in June. 



In this manner Mr. Jenkins has reduced the height of the 



tallest to three feet. Those who object to many of these 



p^nts in small gardens because of their height should try 



Mr. Jenkins' plan for lowering them. Tir 



Ke ^. W. Walson. 



earnest. Mr. J. S. Stickney, of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, in an 

 address before the Iowa Horticultural Society in 1877, said: 

 " I am dreaming that in these native Plums there is something 

 valuable. Their endurance, productiveness and perfect hardi- 

 ness should and must be made useful to us, and we have no 

 right to rest or flag in our efforts until we have an orchard of 

 native Plums that shall command in market two to four dollars 

 per bushel, and yield crops as abundant and frequent as the wild 

 ones in our thickets now do. About the possibility of this 

 there is very little doubt." This was written but fourteen 

 years ago, and it seems well to add that this result has already 

 been attained. During a visit to Mr. O. M. Lord, of Minne- 

 sota City, Minnesota, early in September last, I saw plums 

 sold from his native plum-orchard at sixty-five cents for the 

 ordinary peach-basket, holding about a peck, while the com- 

 mon native plums, gathered indiscriminately from the wild 

 thickets, were selling at from forty to sixty cents per bushel. 



What can be said of the quality of the best native plums ? 

 This question involves some difficulty, since doubts have been 



Fig. 81. — The California Buckeye {Msculus Californica). — See page 517. 



Cultural Department. 



The Present Status of Native Plum Culture. 



THE dearth of hardy fruits in the north-west is naturally 

 directing attention to the native Plum. In the northern 

 species of this fruit, the Prunus Americana, is found a tree 

 that, when properly grown, needs not fear frozen mercury or 

 the brightest summer or winter suns, and that suffers com- 

 paratively little from fungal diseases. The pioneers of the 

 north-western states, in common with those of the east, gen- 

 erally regarded the native Plum as of too little value for cul- 

 ture.' But when sad experience at length demonstrated that 

 the finer European Plums are unable to endure the severe cli- 

 matic conditions of these states, the better native Plums were 

 found far preferable to none, and the thickets where this fruit 

 still abounded began to receive protection. Occasionally a 

 specially meritorious tree, or clump of trees — for their sucker- 

 ing tendency often caused the trees to grow in clumps — was 

 honored with a removal to the farmer's yard or garden, 

 and thus the good work of selection was almost unconsciously 

 commenced. 



As the real merits of this fruit begun to appear, the more 

 progressive farmers, and especially those whose tastes inclined 

 in the direction of horticulture, begun to espouse its cause in 



raised regarding the parentage of some of the finer varieties. 

 If the Cheney, Gaylord and Rollingstone plums are pure na- 

 tives, the gulf between our finest native vaiieties and the 

 Green Gage or Jefferson is not so great that we need to despair 

 of filling it. It must be confessed that the average wild plum, 

 with its diminutive size and tough acerb skin, would not make 

 a creditable showing by the side of its more cultivated Euro- 

 pean cousins, but in the Gaylord and Cheney we have size 

 that eclipses the Green Gage, a thin and fairly tender skin, 

 with but the merest trace of acerbity, and with a flesh that for 

 luscious juiciness would suffer little in comparison with the 

 finest European sorts. In the Rollingstone we have a plum 

 of a size equaling the Green Gage, of delicious quality, with a 

 skin which, though rather thick and tough, is without acerbity, 

 and parts readily from the pulp. The fruit has been shipped 

 from Minnesota City to St. Louis and to New Jersey, arriving 

 in excellent condition. The tree is very hardy and productive, 

 and at Minnesota City is said to have missed but two crops in 

 thirty-five years. Some of the finer varieties tend to rot under 

 culture more than in their native state, though I do not know 

 that the tendency to this trouble is greater among the native 

 than the European sorts. 



Professor Budd suspects that most of the larger so-called 

 native Plums that have recently been brought to notice in Iowa 

 and Minnesota may be hybrids between Prunus Americana and 



