THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 229 



Goutte d'Or de Coe 15, 16. King of Plums 8. New Golden Drop i, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15 16. 

 Nouvelle Goutte d'Or 15, 16. Parmentier ? 15, 16. Prune Goutte D'Or De C06 11. Semis de Bury 

 15, 16. Silver Prune 17, 19. Silver Prune 22. The Coe's Plum i. Waterloo of some 7, 8, ? 14, 15. 



Unforttmately this fine old pltun, the largest, handsomest and best of 

 the yellow plums, is fit only for the amateur in New York and in the hands 

 even of the most careful of amateurs it does not reach the perfection in 

 either appearance or quality that is expected of it in Europe or on the 

 Pacific Coast of America. In spite of special efforts to obtain specimens 

 for illustration which would do this variety justice, the color-plate of Golden 

 Drop is far from satisfactory as regards either size or color of the fruit. In 

 this region trees of Golden Drop lack constitution and while hardy in tree, 

 the fruit-buds are often caught by the cold. From lack of vigor and from 

 injury by freezing, the variety is not productive. The trees, too, are slow 

 in growth and the fruit needs a long season to reach perfect maturity, often 

 failing to ripen in parts of New York where other plums mature well. 

 Again, the trees are subject to nearly all the ills to which plums are heir 

 and have a somewhat precarious existence because of insects and diseases 

 though the fruit is not as subject to brown-rot as is that of the Yellow Egg 

 with which this variety is usually compared. Golden Drop is seemingly 

 fit for all purposes to which plums are put — ^for dessert, cooking, canning, 

 preserving and prune-making. For the last named purpose it is unsurpassed 

 for a light colored prune of large size, readily selling at a fancy price in 

 delicatessen stores. The fruit when carefully picked and handled keeps for a 

 month or more, shrivelling somewhat but retaining its flavor and pleasing 

 flesh-characters. A task for the plant -breeder is to breed a plum, of which 

 one of the parents should be Golden Drop, which will give to this region a 

 plum as good as the Golden Drop in regions where it is at its best. With 

 all of its defects in the North and East, it is yet worth growing for the 

 home and often for the late market. 



Jervaise Coe, a market gardener, at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Eng- 

 land, raised Golden Drop from a seed about 1809. Lindley (References, 5) 

 says, " He [the originator] informed me it was from the stone of Green Gage, 

 the blossom of which, he supposed, had been fertilized by the White Magnum 

 Bonum, the two trees of which grew nearly in contact with each other in 

 his garden." From a study of the fruit -characters this supposition is very 

 probable. C. M. Hovey in discussing the synonyms of this variety writes, 

 " The French have disseminated it considerably imder the name of Waterloo ; 

 trees received under that name have fruited in our collection this year, 



