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'■<>! LXXVIIL NEW YORK, MARCH 1. 1010. 
New or Noteworthy Fruits Plum Culture 
at the East 
AR AND FRT IT-GROWING.—War is not 
conducive to the arts of peace. In common 
with all other peaceful occupations, fruit-growing 
has suffered during the ghastly struggle of the past 
four years. In particular, hut few new varieties of 
1 ruit have been produced. So many fruit-growers 
have been at the front, or have been devoting them¬ 
selves to furnishing the sinews of war, or giving 
their aid to suffering humanity's needs in war- 
stricken countries, that the divine curiosity which 
leads them to invent and create seems to have been 
devoted to materials of war or to have lain dormant. 
There are almost no worthy new fruits among the 
2.000 and more varieties growing on the grounds of 
the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, so 
that the writer finds it impossible to recommend to 
ihe readers of TheR. N.-Y.. as he has done for the 
past six years, an assorted list of novelties worthy 
more easily and cheaply obtained and there is less 
speculation among our fruit-growers. It would seem 
that there is a splendid opportunity for plum-grow¬ 
ing in the East. 
POOR VARIETIES.—The writer believes that 
one of the chief reasons why plums are not more 
commonly grown in the East is that our varieties 
are wretchedly poor. Eastern growers depend upon 
Lombard, Bradshaw and Shropshire, sorts that 
ought to have been thrown in the discard long ago; 
this in spite of the fact that within the last quarter 
century more new varieties of plums have been 
introduced into the United States than of any other 
tree fruit. California takes the lead in growing 
plums, in part, because her plum growers are grow¬ 
ing a great diversity of large, handsome, new plums. 
Some of these, it is true, will not thrive in the East, 
but some will, and it is to these that the attention of 
the reader is drawn in this article. 
DIFFERENT GROUPS.—Four great groups of 
plums are grown in America: Varieties grown from 
quality; tenacious clinging stones, and lack of ship¬ 
ping and keeping qualities. Abundance and Burbank 
are the best of these Japanese sorts. There are no 
new varieties worth planting extensively in the place 
of these two. 
THE DAMSONS come next with three qualities— 
•hard im ss. heal Hi fulness and productiveness—that 
commend them to all who can grow plums either for 
home or market. Moreover, they grow rather better 
in the great fruit regions of Northeastern America 
than anywhere else on the continent. At present. 
New York has the Damson market almost to itself. 
The most largely planted of the Damsons is the well- 
known Shropshire, a very productive sort bearing a 
load of fruit year after year. The French, however, 
as we have pointed out in these columns before, 
surpasses the Shropshire in size, is better in quality 
and is more nearly free of stone. It is not quite as 
productive as Shropshire, but it bears its fruit a 
little later in the season, which is a great advantage. 
THE MIRABELLES are close relatives of the 
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of trial. For most part such as there are can better 
wait for more thorough trial. The plum is an ex¬ 
ception. and this is, therefore, a good opportunity 
to call the attention of Eastern readers to some 
noteworthy varieties of this much-neglected fruit. 
\\ KSTEBN CROP.—The desire to consider the 
plum at this time comes from reading fruit statistics 
from California for 191S, in which it appears that 
L’Is;; carloads of plums were shipped from that 
State east, and that the year previous 218.000,000 
pounds of prunes were produced in California. No 
figures are at hand for Oregon and Washington for 
these two years, hut it is safe to say that the output 
lor these two States is about one-fourth that of 
California. Most of this tremendous plum crop of 
the Pacific slope comes to the East. Cannot more 
I'lums he grown by Eastern fruit-growers? The crop 
from the West goes to the rich. If plums can be 
grown In the East with the advantages of fewer 
middlemen and lower freights, this delicious fruit 
may he sold to the millions who must depend upon 
the home supply. Moreover, land in the East is 
cheaper, labor is more abundant, working capital is 
the wild plums of our forests; the Triflora or Jap¬ 
anese plums; the little purple Damsons: and the 
large Domestics plums represented by the common 
blue, purple and yellow varieties of the markets, 
i he native plums may be disposed of in a few words. 
These are worth growing only in regions where the 
foreign species are tender to eohl. Some of the new 
varieties have pronounced merit in tree and fruit, 
but still they are so inferior to the foreigners that 
there is as yet no place for native plums in com¬ 
mercial fruit-growing. There are no new varieties 
worthy of consideration yet in commerce. 
THE TRIFLORA or Japanese plums are valuable 
additions ro Eastern fruit-growing, but they have 
been over-praised and over-planted, and with the 
exception of two or three varieties are not worth 
planting in commercial or home orchards in the 
East. The qualities recommending them are: Great 
range and adaptation to soil and climate: produc¬ 
tiveness of tree: and freedom from the three 
scourges of Domestiea plums—black knot, leaf blight 
and eurculio. Their faults are: Early blooming: 
susceptibility to brown rot: tenderness to cold; poor 
Damsons and resemble them in tree and in size and 
shape of fruit, but they are yellow instead of purple 
in color, and sweet instead of sour in flavor—as 
someone has said, they are "Golden globules of 
pure ambrosia.” These Mira belles are much used in 
the fresh state, for preserves, jellies, candies, mar¬ 
malades and jams in Europe, but as yet are hardly 
known in America. For several years we have been 
trying to get American growers to plant Mira belles. 
If a Mira belle tart could be left at every door in the 
land the fortunes of the plum-growers would be 
made. Lastly, we come to the large European plums, 
best known of all. fruits which have never attained 
in Eastern America the relative importance they 
should hold with the apple, pear, peach and cherry. 
These plums are restricted in cultivation chiefly 
because the varieties we have in Eastern America 
are not adapted to their environment. The consid¬ 
eration of better sorts, then, becomes of prime im¬ 
portance. 
EUROPEAN PLUMS.—At present, these European 
plums are best represented in Eastern America by 
the group composed of Lombard, Bradshaw, Pond 
