THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 31 



Manual describes from this group only the German Prime and the " Agen 

 Date," or Agen. Indeed, it was not until the beginning of the prune 

 industry in California, about 1870, that the varieties of this group began 

 to be at all popular though an attempt was made by the United States 

 Patent Office to start the prune industry on the Atlantic seaboard by the 

 distribution of cions of two prunes in 1854.' 



The growth of the prune industry on the Pacific Coast is one of the 

 most remarkable industrial phenomena of American agriculture. About 

 1856, Louis Pellier, a sailor, brought to San Jose, California, cions of the 

 Agen from Agen, France. Some time afterward a larger plum, the Pond, 

 was also imported from France, supposedly from Agen, and to distinguish 

 the two, the first was called Petite Prune, by which name it is now very 

 commonly known in the far west. The first cured prunes from this region 

 were exhibited at the California State Fair in 1863; commercial orchards 

 began to be planted about 1870, and the first shipments of cured prunes 

 were probably made in 1875.' In 1880 the output per annum was about 

 200,000 pounds; in 1900 the yearly capacity was estimated to be about 

 130,000,000 poimds, valued by the producers at $450,000.' 



The typical varieties of this group are the Italian, German, Agen, 

 Tragedy, Tennant, Sugar, Giant, Pacific and the Ungarish. 



The distinguishing characters of the group are to be found in the 

 fruit, which is usually large, oval, with one side straighter than the other, 

 usually much compressed with a shallow suture, blue or purple, with a 

 heavy bloom, flesh greenish-yellow or golden, firm, quality good, stone 

 free. The trees are various but are usually large,' upright and spreading 

 with elliptical leaves having much pubescence on the under surface. 



The Perdrigon Plums. — The Perdrigons constitute an old but com- 

 paratively unimportant group of pltims.'' The name comes from an old 



' United States Patent Office Report: xxix. 1854. The following description of this distribu- 

 tion is of interest: " The scions of two varieties of prunes, ' Prunier d'Agen,' and ' Prunier Sainte 

 Catherine,' have been imported from France, and distributed principally in the states north of 

 Pennsylvania, and certain districts bordering on the range of the Allegany Mountains, in order 

 to be engrafted upon the common plum. These regions were made choice of in consequence of 

 their being freer from the ravages of the curculio, which is so destructive to the plum tree in other 

 parts as often to cut off the entire crop. It has been estimated that the State of Maine, alone, 

 where this insect is rarely seen, is capable of raising dried prunes sufficient to supply the wants of 

 the whole Union." 



•Wickson, E. J. California Fruits Ed. 2:82. 1891. 



' Hedrick, U. P. in Bailey's Cyclopedia American Horticulture 1440. 1901. 



' Miller says in his Gardener's Dictionary of the variety Perdrigon, " Hakluyt in 1582, says, 

 of later time the plum called the Perdigwena was procured out of Italy, with two kinds more, by 

 the Lord Cromwell, after his travel." Miller, Phillip Gardener's Dictionary. Edited by Thomas 

 Martyn, 2; (no page). 1707. 



