THE PLUMS OP NEW YORK. lOI 



A canvass of the acreage of four hundred plum-growers in New York 

 shows that the following in order named are the leading commercial varie- 

 ties : Bradshaw, including Niagara, which is identical, Reine Claude includ- 

 ing its several near variations, Italian Prune, German Prune, Lombard, 

 Shropshire, Grand Duke, Washington and Gueii. Abundance and Bur- 

 bank are as widely distributed as any of these, chiefly owing to the zeal 

 with which nurserymen have sold these varieties, but are seldom grown 

 exclusively in commercial plantations, and their popularity is now on the 

 wane as is also the case with Red June which has been largely planted. 

 Varieties of native pltims are hardly grown in New York though now and 

 then they are found in home collections and there are a few small com- 

 mercial plantations of them. 



The fruit of the native and Trifiora plums is so inferior to that of the 

 Domestica sorts for market and domestic purposes, that varieties of these 

 are not likely to take the place of the Domestica plums. Producers and 

 ptu-chasers are now familiar with the possibiUties of the natives and of 

 the Orientals and have not been greatly attracted by them in New York. 

 It is true, however, that the natives have been chiefly represented by 

 Wild Goose and the Trifloras by Abundance and Burbank — scarcely the 

 best that these groups of plums can produce. It is true, too, that the 

 varieties have been greatly over-praised and that they now siiffer from the 

 reaction. Yet the Domesticas command the market and their reliableness 

 in the orchard gives them a popularity in this region which other plums 

 cannot for a long while trench upon. 



This brings us to a discussion of the conditions under which plums are 

 now grown in North America and more particularly in New York. Of 

 these, climate, with this fruit, should be first discussed, outranking 

 all others in importance. 



CLIMATE 



Climatic conditions determine the culttire of the plum not only for a 

 region but for a locality; not only as to whether it is possible to grow 

 plums at all but as to whether this fruit can be grown with reasonable 

 prospects of commercial success in competition with other localities. The 

 constituents of climate which are important in plum-growing are tempera- 

 ture, rainfall and air currents, the last two being largely dependent upon 

 the first. The relationship existing between pltams and these factors of 

 climate are fairly well known for they have received attention from the 

 very beginning of plum culture. 



