Vol. LVIII. No. 2599 
$1 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 18, 1899. 
NATIVE PLUMS IN THE NORTHWEST 
A LIST OF VARIETIES. 
Treatment and Marketing. 
THEIR FUTURE POSSIBILITIES—The 
native plums are now well established in 
the Northwest. The extreme hardiness, pro¬ 
ductiveness, and extended fruiting season of 
the different varieties, all serve to commend 
them to the fruit growers of the northern 
States, where the European varieties of the 
plum, peach, and apricot do not thrive. The 
fruit men in more favored climates are 
likely to look rather scornfully upon native 
plums, but a somewhat extended acquaint¬ 
ance with the best varieties of these has led 
me to believe that 'they will, in a few years, 
find a place in the orchards and on the mar¬ 
kets, side by side with the Damson and Yel¬ 
low Egg, and will even be able to stand by 
the slide of the big Japs with fair credit. 
ORIGIN OF WILD GOOSE.—They are 
mere youngsters. It ( is not yet half a cen¬ 
tury since a man in Tennessee shot a wild 
goose and left the carcass where it fell; there 
arose from this, pnoenix-like, not another 
goose, but a marvelous plum tree, a tree that 
bore great, bright red, glossy-skinned plums. 
The Wild Goose plum is best known in the 
lower Mississippi Valley, but has proved 
somewhat tender in the North. There are a 
few other varieties closely resembling itTand 
all have been grouped by Prof. Bailey under 
the title of Prunus hortulana. The fruit is 
large and showy, with lots of meat, but little 
of richness. The members of the Chicara 
group are also too tender for northern lati¬ 
tudes. Following the mild Winter of ’97- 
’98, trees of this species in the Station or¬ 
chard bore heavily; following the recent 
“unpleasantness” of ’98-’99, but few plums 
ripened. The trees all lived through, but 
the flower buds perished. Fig. 296, page 798, 
shows the influence of the Winter of 1896-’97, 
a mild Winter compared with that of ’98-’99, 
on American and European plums. The 
branch on the left is Americana, that on the 
right European. The fruit of this class some¬ 
what resembles that of the Hortulana type, 
but as a rule is not as large; it is thin- 
skinned, and the flesh is juicy, but all are 
clingstones of the worst type. Pottowatta- 
mie and Robinson are two of this class, both 
immensely productive, and the latter above 
the average in size. The third and only re¬ 
maining group of native plums of any im¬ 
portance is the Americana group—Prunus 
Americana. 
THE AMERICAN TYPE.—The varieties of 
this species, with few exceptions, have been 
gathered from the river banks and ravines of 
Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, within the 
past 20 years. This has proved the most 
valuable species for the Northwest, owing to 
its extreme hardiness. The varieties are, al¬ 
most without exception, productive. The 
fruit is characterized by a thick, tough skin 
and more or less astringency, but possessing, 
nevertheless, a remarkable richness of flavor, 
not excelled by any other sume fru'it. In 
many varieties the skin, though thick, dis¬ 
solves in cooking, and in others may be 
peeled readily. The varieties of the Nigra 
branch of this family, bear fruit with a thin¬ 
ner skin, that may be eaten with impunity, 
but the flesh of these, as a rule, has rather 
more astringency and less richness than the 
SURPRISE PLUM. Fig. 294. 
The Surprise would be Mr. Craneiield’s choice, if limited to one variety of 
native plum, while the best three market sorts are Surprise, Wyant and Aitkin, the 
latter being figured hn page 798. Prof. E. S. Golf and Mr. Cranefield have given 
special study to the Americana plums, and will extend their investigation. 
WYANT PLUM. Natural Size. Fig. 295. 
true Americanas. The period of ripening of 
the native plums is a long one, extending, in 
southern Wisconsin, from the second week of 
August to October 1. 
A SELECT LIST.—From about 100 varie¬ 
ties that have been tested here, the follow¬ 
ing are selected as worthy of special men¬ 
tion: Aitkin, the earliest of native plums to 
date, and of fair quality, but not very pro¬ 
ductive; skin remarkably thin for an Ameri¬ 
cana. From northern Minnesota; ripened 
first at Madison, the past season August 12. 
Specimens of the fruit, natural size, are 
shown in Fig. 297, page 798. This cut, as 
well as the following, are taken from Bul¬ 
letin No. 63, Wisconsin Agricultural Station, 
entitled The Culture of Native Plums in the 
Northwest, by Prof. Goff. American Eagle, 
a large, showy plum, that will probably sell 
well, but not as high in quality as many 
others. Cheney, advertised by many as the 
earliest, but nearly a week later than Aitkin 
here. Resembles the Aitkin in many re¬ 
spects, but not as meaty. City, medium to 
small 'in size and of average quality, but an 
almost perfect freestone, a redeeming fea¬ 
ture. De Soto, large, late, and of good qual¬ 
ity. Forest Garden, one of the very best. 
Large, juicy, and exceedingly rich. Hammer, 
a variety said to have originated in Iowa un¬ 
der cultivation. Its main points of excel¬ 
lence are its thin skin and large size. Har¬ 
rison’s Peach, medium to large, and of good 
quality. Hawkeye, very large, but not high 
in quality. It is sour and astringent. Le 
Due, small, light-colored, nearly yellow, with 
a very little crimson on sun side, making it a 
handsome plum; quality fair to good, early. 
Ripened August 14, 1899. Mankato, an early 
plum of good size and quality. Skin medium 
and tender. Ripened August 14, 1899. Ochee- 
da, a very good plum; medium to large in 
size; skin tender, flesh juicy and sweet. 
Quaker, large; skin very thick and tough; 
flesh very juicy, rich and sweet. An excel¬ 
lent plum. Rockford, small to medium, with 
a rich flavor. Rollingstone, very productive; 
medium size; quality only fair. Springer, a 
large oblong, somewhat flattened fruit with 
tender skin; flesh firm and sweet; a good 
plum. Wolf, a very dark purplish-red plum, 
with somewhat thinner skin than the aver¬ 
age Americana. Quality fair. 
Wyant, a most excellent plum; large, 
meaty, rich and melting. The skin is thick, 
but extremely tender. This is probably the 
best Americana plum to date for market, as 
it is showy, of good quality, and productive. 
It is shown in Fig. 295. Surprise is the very 
best plum so far tested in our orchard.. It 
has been classified both as P. hortulana and 
as P. Americana. Fruit very large, nearly 
round; skin thin; flesh thick, firm, rich and 
sugary. Flavor resembling that of European 
plums. Mid-season. The specimens shown 
in Fig. 294 were from the first crop borne by 
the tree, and fail to do justice by the va¬ 
riety. These are a few of the best of the 
Americanas. If I were to cut the list to the 
best three market sorts, I would name Sur¬ 
prise, Wyant and Aitkin. If I could plant 
but one sort, it would be Surprise. 
CULTURE AND GRAFTING.—The culture 
of native plums is comparatively simple. The 
varieties may be grafted on seedlings. These 
may be found in abundance in almost any 
fence corner in Wisconsin. In case It should 
