WILD FRUITS OF NEBRASKA. 99 



duce an early and fruitful grove of these plums from the seed. A 

 tree grown in my former grounds in Dakota City yielded thirty- 

 nine blossoms the second year from the seed, and seven hundred 

 and ninety the third year. It is also found that these wild plums 

 are magnificent stock on which to graft the peach, other varieties of 

 plums, and the apricot. Their great hardiness, and the readiness 

 with which they unite with the old cultivated plums, makes them 

 invaluable to those who raise such fruit. 



Alas! there is one drawback to this picture. The everlasting 

 enemy of the plum, the curcuiio,* is also present. The young fruit 

 sets each year by the million, but some of the finest groves are 

 sometimes for years in succession prevented by this cause from 

 bearing much fruit. Yet so great is the vitality of the plum fami- 

 ly in this State that some varieties will succeed even in despite of 

 the curcuiio. One such grove I found years ago along the bluffs 

 southwest of Dakota City. The trees were laden with fruit even 

 when all the other groves in the neighborhood were almost entire- 

 ly shorn of their treasures. The foliage indicated a hybrid between 

 the two species under consideration, at least it possessed some char- 

 acteristics that belonged to these two separately, along with others 

 of its own. The fruit was large for wild plums, the skin tough, 

 though comparatively thin, and could readily be pared. The flesh 

 was hard and acid until it was fully ripe, when it became juicy and 

 melting. I have no doubt varieties of this kind could be selected 

 from these ample stores of nature which would be of incalculable 

 value to the horticulturist. 



The dwarf or sand-hill cherry, so famous on our western plains, 

 is really botanicallv a dwarf plum, [Priuuis pumila) — and therefore 

 we speak of it last. The stem is smooth, depressed, trailing or 

 semi-erect, from eight to twenty-four inches high. The leaves are 

 obovate lanceolate, tapering to the base, sometimes a little toothed 

 towards the apex, and pale underneath; the flowers numerous, two 

 to four in a cluster. The fruit varies greatly, but is generally 

 about half an inch long and three-eighths broad, ovoid, dark pur- 

 ple, brown purple, brown, reddish, or nearly black, generally sweet, 

 sometimes delicious and occasionally almost insipid. It is enor- 

 mously productive. The shrub has a spreading habit, form- 

 ing dense masses, sometimes covering from thirty to sixty 



* Conotrachflus nenuphar, commonly spoken of as the ''plum weevil." 



Lire 



J AH 



