28o THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



flowers appearing after the leaves, one inch or more across, white with yellowish tinge; 

 borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs. 



Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; one and three-quarters 

 inches by one and five-eighths inches in size, roundish-oval or roundish-ovate, golden- 

 yellow, mottled and splashed with green and sometimes with a blush on the exposed 

 cheek, overspread with thin bloom; dots conspicuous; flesh light golden-yellow, juicy, 

 firm but tender, sweet, pleasant in flavor; very good; stone clinging or semi-clinging, 

 one inch by five-eighths inch in size, ovate or oval, somewhat flattened, usually 

 winged; dorsal suture grooved. 



MILTON 



Prunus munsoniana X ? 



1. la. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 287. 1887. 2. Ibid. 393. 1892. 3. Ibid. 334. 1894. 4. Neb. Hort. Soc. 

 Rpt. 201. 1897. 5. Wis. Sta. Bui. 63:24, 48. 1897. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 40. 1899. 7. la. 

 Sta. Bui. 46:280. 1900. 8. Ala. Col. Sta. Bui. 112:178. 1900. g. Terry Cai. 6. 1900. 10. Waugh 

 Plum Culi. 187. 1901. II. Can. Exp. Farm. Bui. 43:31. 1903- 12. la. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 445. 

 i9°3- 13- G^<i- Sta. Bui. 67:277. 1904. 14. Miss. Sta. Bui. 93:15. 1905. 15. Ohio Sta. Bui. 

 162:256, 257. 1905. 16. III. Hon. Soc. Rpt. 420. 1905. 



The special merits of Milton, as compared with other native varieties, 

 are that it blooms late and ripens early. It thus escapes frosts, when, for 

 example, its parent, Wild Goose, might be injured; and its early ripening 

 prolongs the season for native plums. The fruits are large, of very good 

 quality, though a little too juicy for pleasant eating or to ship well, very 

 attractive in appearance, and, more important than all else for the regions 

 in which it is likely to be grown, it is comparatively free from rot. Unfor- 

 tunately, the flesh clings most tenaciously to the stone even after cooking. 

 In its fruit-characters, Milton strongly resembles one of the Mineri plums, but 

 the tree is very much like that of Wild Goose, its known parent. In New 

 York, Milton is one of the best of the native plums but it is hardly so con- 

 sidered in the Middle West, where these plums are most grown, judging 

 from the discussions of it in the references given above. 



Milton, a seedling of Wild Goose grown by H. A. Terry, Crescent, 

 Iowa, first fruited in 1885. The originator believed that the other parent 

 was an Americana, but from the characters of the tree it was more likely 

 one of the Mineri plums. The American Pomological society added Milton 

 to its fruit catalog list in 1899. 



Tree of medium size and vigor, round and dense-topped, symmetrical, hardy at 

 Geneva, productive, healthy; branches brash, rough, thorny, dark brownish-gray, 

 with numerous, large, narrow and much elongated lenticels; branchlets very slender, 

 willowy, medium to long, with internodes of average length, greenish-red, changing 



