OUR COMMON FRUIT TREES 



China it has been taken to southern Manchuria, Korea, 

 and Japan where to-day it is extensively cultivated. 

 From Japan it was introduced into this country 

 about 1870 by a Mr. Hough, of Vacaville, Cal., 

 through a United States Consul to Japan, Mr. 

 Bridges. The first ripe fruit of these east Asiatic 

 Plums was produced in the grounds of Mr. John 

 Kelsey, Berkeley, Cal., in 1876. So impressed with 

 their value was Mr. Kelsey that he urged others 

 to take them up and this resulted in their prop- 

 agation being undertaken on a large scale by 

 Messers W. P. Hammon & Co., Oakland, California, 

 about 1883. To-day about one hundred varieties of 

 Japanese Plum are grown in this country. It reached 

 Europe, where it is less valued, later, and from 

 America. 



A hybrid between a cultivated form of the east 

 Asiatic Plum and the common Apricot, known as 

 Prunus Simonii, has been cultivated for nobody 

 knows how long in the provinces of Shantung and 

 Chihli. It was introduced to France in 1867 and has 

 since been much grown in this country. This Plum- 

 cot is short-lived and of no particular value. 



Authorities are not yet agreed as to the exact 

 number of species of Plums found wild in this country 

 and Canada but, undoubtedly they exceed in number 

 the total found in the rest of the world. Virtually 



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