25 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



Century, horticulture, in fact all agriculture, was greatly stimulated by 

 the publication of agricultural books' and magazines' and the formation 

 of agricultural and horticultural societies.' The frequency of the names 

 of these publications of a century ago in The Plums of New York is an 

 indication of the contributions they made to the culture of the plum. 



Having briefly outlined the history of the Domestica plums, we come 

 now to a discussion of what we have under cultivation in this fruit. The 

 Domestica plums, 950 or more mentioned in this text, may be divided into 

 several more or less distinct pomological groups. These groups are of 

 interest because in their history the evolution of the plum under con- 

 sideration is further developed; because such groups are serviceable to 

 pliim-growers, as each division has adaptation for particular conditions or 

 particular purposes; and because of their value to the breeder of plums 

 since the largest and best differentiated groups, as a rule, have their 

 characters most strongly fixed and may be relied upon to best transmit 

 them to their offspring. 



Groups of plums in pomology are founded for most part upon the 

 characters of the fruit since these are most readily recognized by fruit- 

 growers. Yet whenever possible, leaf, flower and tree-characters are con- 

 sidered. The name given is usually that of the best known variety in the 

 group though in some of the divisions the name is that of the variety which 

 seems to be intermediate in character between the other members of 

 the group. 



The groups of plums recognized by pomologists were far more distinct 

 as we go back in their history. For, in the past, each fruit-growing region 



' The horticultural books published in America between 1779 and 1825 were: The Gardener's 

 Kaknder by Mrs. Martha Logan, Charleston: 1779; The American Gardener by John Gardiner and 

 David Hepburn, Washington; 1804; The American Gardener's Calendar by Bernard McMahon, 

 Philadelphia: 1806; A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees by William Cox, Philadelphia: 1817; 

 The American Practical Gardener by an Old Gardener, Baltimore: 1819; The Gentleman's and Gar- 

 dener's Kalendar by Grant Thorbum, New York: 1821; American Gardener by William Cobbett, 

 New York: 1819; and The American Orchardist by James Thacher, M. D., Boston: 1822. 



'During the quarter ending in 1825 two agricultural publications were in existence in the 

 United States: The American Farmer, established in Baltimore in 1 819, and the New England Farmer, 

 founded in Boston in 1822. To these should be added the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, 

 not a journal in the strict sense of the word but published by the Massachusetts Society for Pro- 

 moting Agriculture, established in 1793, and continued until the New England Farmer was started 

 in 1822. The Repository was the first agricultural periodical of the New World. 



' At least three agricultural societies were founded soon after the close of the Revolution ; the 

 Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture and the Agricultural Society of South Carolina 

 were founded in 1785, and the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture in 1792, while the 

 first strictly horticultural society, the New York Horticultural Society, was not established until i8i8. 



