TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 75 



Delaware. Sold to same party. It is a very dwarf plum in tree but 

 not in fruit, which ripens very early and is large, delicious, and 

 abundant. No better plum is to be found for early home use. 



Hale. Sold to J. H. Hale, of South Glastonbury, Conn. A tre- 

 mendous bearer. The fruit is of size, form, color, and quality of 

 Imperial Gage. Stone much smaller, one of the Japanese varieties. 



Apple. Mid-season, extremely large. Stem, form, color, and general 

 appearance of an apple. Rich reddish purple; flesh firm, pale red, 

 with marblings of pink, rich, high flavored, sweet or subacid; tree 

 vigorous and productive. One of the best for shipping or any other 

 purpose. 



America. Of the same parentage and similar to Gold, but five or six 

 weeks earlier. 



Chalco. A cross of Prunus Simoni and Burbank. The fruit, which 

 ripens just before the Burbank, is large, flat like a tomato, reddish pur- 

 ple, sweet, firm, fragrant, with yellow flesh and small seed. Simoni 

 will never be grown for any purpose where this is known, for in every 

 possible respect it is its superior. 



Pearl. A seedling of the French prune, much larger, skin white; 

 flesh semi-transparent, very sweet and aromatic; about a month earlier 

 than the French prune, but more difficult to cure. Especially valuable 

 for home use. 



October Purple. Introduced by Hoyt's Sons, New Canaan, Conn. It 

 is a very productive, deep purple plum of the Japanese type, ripening 

 very late in the season; of most excellent quality and a good shipper. 



Sugar prune, Climax, Sultan, Bartlett, and Shiro plums, all intro- 

 duced last season, need no special mention at this time, as they have 

 yet to make their record outside the confines of my own grounds. I 

 can only add that they are the cream of all the hundreds of thousands 

 of the best hybrid and cross-bred plums with which I have been labor- 

 ing constantly for the past sixteen years. I do not say that better 

 ones will not be produced, for I have no doubt there will be; but at 

 present I would plant none but these. As I am requested to come here 

 to answer your questions regarding them, I need say no more, and can 

 only hope that they may prove to be even more valuable to the 

 grower, shipper, and consumer than have been those which have already 

 left my hands to receive the test of various soils, markets, and uses, 

 and the greater test of time. 



It has been well said that it were better for a man that a millstone 

 be hung around his neck and that he be cast into the sea than that he 

 should introduce a fruit or flower which should prove to be of no value. 

 In the introduction of a new fruit or flower no one who has not been 

 through the experience can fully appreciate the sense of responsibility, 

 and no one can more deeply lament a failure than the introducer. 



