PROMISING WILD FRUITS. 



651 



have sprung, that we may confidently expect great im- 

 provement in the future, and that the plums of America, 

 developed from the native species, will ultimately be su- 

 perior to the best of those now grown in Europe. 



Although wild plums are found throughout the larger 

 portion of the United States, it is along the wooded 

 borders of the prairie country in the Mississippi Valley 

 that they occur in greatest abundance and variety. The 

 quantity and excellence of the wild plums were often the 

 subject of remark by early travelers in that region. 



fruit that they were in many instances literally without 

 leaves on their branches, and bent quite to the ground." 

 Flint, in his History and Geography of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, published in 1832, says; " Prairie plums 

 are most abundant in Illinois and Missouri on the hazel 

 prairies * * * some of them are large and deli- 

 cious. * * * The yellow osage plums of this class, 

 when the better kinds are cultivated, are among the most 

 delicious plums we have eaten. So rich and delightful 

 a fruit, and so easily cultivated, well deserves to be 



Native Persimmon i^Diospyros Virginiaua 



George Catlin, in an account of his travels near the 

 mouth of the Red river prior to 1840, after speaking of 

 ridges of timber containing a profusion of wild grapes, 

 says: "The next hour we would be trailing through 

 broad and verdant valleys of green prairies into which 

 we had descended ; and after finding our progress com- 

 pletely arrested by hundreds of acres of small plum 

 trees of four or six feet in height, so closely woven and 

 interlocked as entirely to dispute our progress, sending 

 us several miles around ; when every bush that was in 

 sight was so loaded with the weight of its delicious wild 



cour 



however, that t n e 

 cultivation of the 

 native varieties was 

 attempted to a n y 

 considerable extent. 

 This failure early led to the 

 introduction of the Chickasaw 

 plums at the South, and is 

 now bringing into notice a 

 large number of varieties, chiefly of the 

 species Americnna, in the northern 

 prairie States, where the climate is too 

 severe for the standard varieties of 

 Primus domesiica . 



For example, Mr. U. S. Hollister, of 

 St. Paul, Minnesota, in a report to the American Pomo- 

 logical Society, says, "The 'tame' plum will not do 

 with us. The best natives are largely cultivated and 

 doing finely. The De Soto is one of the best. Each 

 neighborhood seems to have its favorite plum, and 

 they are good enough for us." 



The agricultural colleges of Iowa, Wisconsin, Min- 

 nesota and other states, have been instrumental in in- 

 troducing and disseminating valuable varieties of native 

 plums, and the nurserymen of the northwest are enter- 

 prising in their efforts to secure the best varieties. 



