[138] “The Sand Plums” Country Gentleman, Jan. 27, 1898.

[139] Thomas Volney Munson, after whom it has been a pleasure to name this species, though best known as a viticulturist, has also rendered invaluable service to plum-culture. A sketch of his life appeared in The Grapes of New York (page 122) in which his services to viticulture were briefly mentioned. While his name is not commonly connected with the study of plums, it is not too much to say that without his aid the publications of those who have written during the last quarter century on native plums would have lacked much of the information they contain in regard to the species of the Southwest. He has an intimate knowledge of the wild plums of Texas and has freely given of it to all who have asked, often supplementing information with herbarium specimens or plants. The authors of The Plums of New York wish to give him credit for much of the information, furnished directly or indirectly, in regard to the wild and cultivated plums of the region in which he lives, in recognition of which his name is given to one of the most important species of native plums. Mr. Munson has grown and introduced a number of hybrid plums of note, chief of those of his own growing being Nimon, Minco and Burford. Many of his experiments in hybridizing plums, though unproductive of new varieties, are of much value as a guide to other workers with this fruit.

[140] Lawson, John History of Carolina 105. 1714.

[141] Waugh Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 12:235. 1899. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hort. 1449. 1901.

[142] Cont. Bot. Lab. University of Pa. 2:216. 1899-1900.

[143] DeVries, Hugo Species and Varieties, etc. 57. 1905.

[144] The references given contain these quotations.

[145] Waugh, F. A. Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 11:273. 1897-98.

[146] Hedrick. U. P; The Relation of Weather to the Setting of Fruit. Bul. 299. 1908.

[147] Waugh, F. A. Vt. Sta. Bul. 53:51. 1896.

[148] Goff, E. S. Wis. Sta. An. Rpt. 18:302. 1901.

[149] Waugh, F. A. Plum Cult. 297-300. 1901.

[150] Hansen, N. E. S. D. Sta. Bul. 93:67. 1905.

[151] Carrière, E. A. Prunier Saint Julien. Revue Horticole 438-439. 1892.

[152] Waugh Plum Cult. 247. 1901.

[153] Hansen, N. E. S. D. Sta. Bul. 87. 1904. Ibid. 93:68. 1905.

[154] Wickson, E. J. California Fruits 348. 1891.

[155] A prune is a dried plum. The requisite for a prune-making plum is that it have a large proportion of solids, particularly sugar. Comparatively few varieties of plums bear sufficient amounts of solids so that they may be successfully cured into a firm, long-keeping product. Only varieties of the Domesticas are used in making prunes, though possibly some of the Insititias might be so used. Prunes are chiefly used in cookery though some of the finer grades from France are sold as confections.

Prunes are either dried in the sun as in California; partially cooked in ovens and the curing completed indoors, as in European countries; or wholly dried in evaporators, as in the Pacific Northwest. Sun-drying is the most economical method where the climate permits. The half cooking does not make so attractive a product but when skillfully done the prunes are possibly more palatable, as the cooked flavor is liked by consumers. Beyond question the best prunes are made, however, all things considered, in well-managed evaporators. In evaporators the changes of curing take place most perfectly and uniformly so that, as a rule, the prune looks better, keeps longer, is not so tough and has a more natural taste of the green fruit.

In prune-making the fruit is allowed to remain on the trees until ripe enough to fall to the ground, as the maximum proportion of solids is thus obtained. After picking, the plums are passed over graders to remove rubbish and to secure uniformity in size, this being essential to obtain evenness in curing, since the small fruits dry more rapidly than large ones. Usually before evaporation begins the fruit is dipped in boiling lye or pricked by needles in a pricking machine to make tender the tough skin and so allow the moisture to escape more readily. The dipping consists of immersing the fruit for a minute or less in a solution of lye in the proportion of 1 pound of concentrated lye to from 10 to 50 gallons of water maintained at the boiling point. The fruit is carried mechanically through the lye vat and a rinser by a modified endless chain, or it may be dipped in wire baskets. After rinsing the plums are ready for curing.

Exposure to the sun in curing varies from five to twelve days, depending upon the heat of the sun and the size and the variety of the plum. Curing in evaporators varies with the fruit and with the make of the machine. In general the temperature in the evaporator is from 120° to 140° at the start, increasing to from 160° to 180° and decreasing when the prunes are taken out. Too much heat at first causes the cells of the fruit to burst, thereby producing drip and discoloration. Important factors in evaporating in machines are the circulation of air, convenience, cost of fuel and power. The time required for curing ranges from twelve hours for a small plum to forty-eight hours for a large, juicy one. If not cured enough fermentation and molding result; if cured too much the weight is lessened, the quality is injured, the prune is harsh and coarse and has a dried up appearance.

When sufficiently dried the prunes are put in bins or piles to sweat, a process taking from one to three weeks, after which they are graded, processed and packed. In grading, the prunes are separated into sizes indicating the number of prunes required to make a pound, as 30’s to 40’s, 40’s to 50’s and so on to the smallest size, 120’s to 130’s. The processing is done by dipping the prunes in boiling water and glycerine or by steaming or by using some special preparation in the final dipping or by rattling in a revolving cylinder. Processing is reputable if it adds beauty to the color, or kills insects’ eggs or sterilizes the prunes. It is disreputable when the aim is to add to the weight. The best prunes are packed in boxes, in which process lining with paper, filling facing, pressing and labeling are important details. A well cured prune is soft and spongy, the pit is loose but does not rattle, the skin is bright, the product is free from drippings or exudation, the flesh is meaty, elastic, and of a bright, lively color.

The custom has been to bleach light colored prunes with sulphur fumes. This process injures the quality and possibly makes the product somewhat poisonous. Sulphuring is now regulated by the Federal Pure Food Law.

If poorly managed or if the plums are not of the best, several difficulties are encountered in curing prunes. Thus, a syrupy liquid sometimes oozes from the prunes, besmearing and making unattractive the final product. Again, the finished prunes may be covered with globules of sugar, rendering them sticky and destroying the lustre. Fruit grown on poor soils, on unhealthy trees or picked green may cure into small prunes of an abnormal shape called “Frogs” or they may ferment and swell up in large soft prunes called “Bloaters.”

The plum chiefly used in California in making prunes is the Agen, usually called Petite, a prune curing into a bright amber-colored product. This plum is easily cured, and the prune from it needs little sugar in cooking. In the states north of California the Italian Prune is the favorite, producing a dark red, almost black product, more tart but on the whole rather better flavored than the prune from the preceding variety. Other varieties more or less used are Golden Drop, the product from which is known as the Silver Prune; Reine Claude, which makes a fancy product often used as a confection; Yellow Egg, which sells as the Silver Prune when evaporated; the German Prune, making a product much like the Italian Prune; “Hungarian Prune,” from a very large plum and making a fancy product but very difficult to cure; the Tragedy Prune, an early plum of the Italian type; Golden Prune, much like the Silver and possibly better; and the Champion, Willamette, Pacific, Tennant, Steptoe and Dosch, all of the Italian type.

[156] Farlow, W. G. The Black Knot, Bulletin Bussey Institution 440-453. 1876. Halsted, B. D. Destroy the Black Knot, etc. N. J. Sta. Bul. 78:1-14. 1891.

[157] Smith, E. F. Peach Rot and Peach Blight Journ. Myc. 5:123-134. 1889. Quaintance, A. L. The Brown Rot, etc. Ga. Sta. Bul. 50:237-269, figs. 1-9. 1900.

[158] Atkinson, G. F. Leaf Curl and Plum Pockets Cornell Sta. Bul. 73:319-355, Pls. 1-20. 1894.

[159] Ibid.

[160] Sturgis, W. C. A Leaf Curl of the Plum Conn. Sta. Rpt. 19:183, Pl. 2. 1895.

[161] Arthur, J. C. Plum Leaf Fungus N. Y. Sta. An. Rpt. 5:276-281, Pls. 6-10. 1887.

[162] Duggar, B. M. Fungous Diseases of Plants 314, figs. 147, 148. 1909. Pierce, N. B. A Disease of Almond Trees Jour. Myc. 7:66-67, Pls. 11-14. 1892.

[163] Scribner, F. L. Leaf Rust of the Cherry, etc. U. S. Dept. Agr. Rpt. 353-355. Pl. 3. 1887. Hedrick, U. P. Prune Rust Oreg. Sta. Bul. 45:67. 1897.

[164] Stewart, F. C. N. Y. Sta. Bul. 191:323-324. 1900. Rolfs, F. M. Die Back of Peach Trees Science 26:87. 1907.

[165] Duggar, B. M. Fungous Diseases of Plants 226. 1909.

[166] Smith, E. F. and Townsend, C. O. A Plant Tumor of Bacterial Origin Science 25:671-673. 1907. Toumey, J. W. Cause and Nature of Crown Gall Ariz. Sta. Bul. 33:1-64, figs. 1-31. 1900. Hedgcock, G. C. Crown Gall, etc. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Pl. Ind. Bul. 90:15-17, Pls. 3-5. 1906.

[167] Smith, E. F. Science 17:456-7. 1903. Ibid. 21:502. 1905. Clinton, G. P. Report of Botanist Conn. Sta. Rpt. 273. 1905.

[168] Hedrick, U. P. Gumming of the Prune Tree Oreg. Sta. Bul. 45:68-72. 1897.

[169] Stewart, F. C. N. Y. Sta. Bul. 191:324-326. 1900.

[170] Pammel, L. H. New Fungous Diseases of Iowa Jour. Myc. 7:99-100. 1892.

[171] Jones, L. R. Studies upon Plum Blight Vt. Ex. Sta. Rpt. 15:231-239. 1902.

[172] Smith, E. F. The Peach Rosette Jour. Myc. 6:144. 1891.

[173] Waugh, F. A. Plum Cult. 329. 1901.

[174] Ibid.

[175] Starnes, H. N. Japan and Hybrid Plums Ga. Sta. Bul. 68:22-24. 1905.

[176] Hedrick, U. P. Curl-leaf of the Italian Prune Oreg. Sta. Bul. 45:72-74. 1897.

[177] Smith, E. F. Field Notes Jour. Myc. 6:108. 1891.

[178] Riley, C. V. An. Rpt. State Entomol. Mo. 1:50-56. 1869; 3:11-29. 1871.

[179] Ibid. 3:39-42. 1871.

[180] Beutenmüller, W. Sesiidae of America, etc. 266-271. 1901.

[181] Ibid. 291-292. 1901.

[182] Riley, C. V. An. Rpt. State Entomol. Mo. 1:46-47. 1869.

[183] Lowe, V. H. N. Y. Sta. Bul. 180:122-128. 1900.

[184] Wilson, H. F. The Peach-tree Barkbeetle U. S. D. A. Bur. Ent. Bul. 68:91-108. 1909.

[185] Hunter, W. D. The Aphididæ of N. A. Ia. Sta. Bul. 60:103. 1901.

[186] Ibid. 107, 108.

[187] Ibid. 108, 109.

[188] Gillette, C. P. A Few Orchard Plant Lice Col. Sta. Bul. 133:41. 1908.

[189] Ibid. 39.

[190] Marlatt, C. L. The San Jose or Chinese Scale U. S. D. A. Bur. Ent. Bul. 62:1-89. 1906.

[191] Lowe, V. H. The New York Plum Lecanium N. Y. Sta. Bul. 136:583. 1897.

[192] For references to these scales see Fernald, Mrs. M. E. Coccidae of the World Mass. Sta. Bul. 88:1-360. 1903.

[193] Lowe, V. H. The Apple-tree Tent Caterpillar N. Y. Sta. Bul. 152:279-293. 1898.

[194] Riley, C. V. An. Rpt. State Entom. Mo. 2:94-103. 1870.

[195] Ibid. 7:83-90. 1875.

[196] Saunders, W. Insects Injurious to Fruits 95, 96. 1883.

[197] Riley, C. V. and Marlatt, C. L. The Clover Mite Insect Life 3:45-53. 1890.

[198] Saunders, W. Insects Injurious to Fruits 159. 1883.

[199] Ibid. 150-153. 1883.

[200] Lowe, V. H. The Pistol Case-bearer N. Y. Sta. Bul. 122:221-232. 1897.

[201] Riley, C. V. Insect Life 1:133. 1889.

[202] Cornell Sta. Bul. 62:27. 1894.

[203] Tex. Sta. Bul. 32:488. 1894.

[204] Professor Joseph Lancaster Budd was a native of New York, having been born July 3, 1835, at Peekskill, Westchester County. On his father’s side he was of French ancestry, but his mother was of English descent, a member of the Lancaster family, early settlers on the Hudson River. He was educated in the public schools of Monticello, Monticello Academy and at Hiram College, though he did not finish at the last named institution because of financial distress at home. In 1857 the young man moved west and for a year taught in an academy at Rockford, Illinois, and in the Wheaton schools of the same state. In 1858 he moved to Benton County, Iowa, where he established the Benton County Orchards and Nurseries. He soon became identified with horticulture in Iowa, especially through its State Horticultural Society, an organization of which he was secretary from 1873 to 1885 and from 1892 to 1895, serving in all seventeen years. In 1876 he was elected to the chair of Horticulture and Forestry in the Iowa Agricultural College, a position which he held until 1899, when he retired as professor emeritus, having spent twenty-two years in pioneer work in this college. In 1882 Professor Budd visited Russia to study the hardy plants of that country and imported from there many varieties of fruit, as well as other plants, which he thought suited to the climate of the Northwest. After his return his work was largely given up to originating and testing varieties which he thought would prove of value to the States of the Plains. He was preeminent in America for his work with Russian fruits and was one of the first to see the possibilities of our native plums. The frequency with which his name is mentioned in this book as a breeder of hardy fruits indicates his interest in securing plums adapted to the region in which he lived. The horticultural library of Charles Downing, by the wish of the owner, was given to the Iowa Agricultural College with the expectation that Professor Budd would revise Downing’s famous Fruits and Trees of America. Ill health prevented the accomplishment of this task, although as senior author he published, in 1902, the American Horticultural Manual in two volumes. During the greater part of his active life he was a constant correspondent of the horticultural press. Professor Budd was a teacher as well as a pomologist and did much for American pomology in imparting to the men who came in contact with him both knowledge and enthusiasm. He died in Phoenix, Arizona, December 26, 1904.

[205] Samuel D. Willard was born August 24, 1835, near Cayuga, New York. He was educated in the district school, Canandaigua Academy, and Temple Hall, Geneseo, having been graduated at the last named place in 1854. After a successful business career of a decade and a half following his schooling, Mr. Willard engaged in the nursery business in Geneva, New York. He prospered in tree-growing and soon embarked in fruit-growing as well, rapidly attaining distinction as a nurseryman and as a fruit-grower. He early began to specialize in plum culture and soon became one of the leading growers of plums, one of the chief authorities on varieties, and one of the largest importers of new sorts. In 1897, with Dr. L. H. Bailey as co-author, Mr. Willard prepared Bulletin 131, Notes upon Plums, of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. In this bulletin Mr. Willard put on record the results of his long experience in growing plums and gave descriptions of seventy varieties, nineteen of which he had imported from Europe. Besides this bulletin he has published but little on plums, but his spoken words regarding them may be found in nearly every report of the two horticultural societies of New York since 1880, as they are also to be found in the reports of horticultural societies in neighboring states and the provinces of Canada. Besides his work in horticultural societies, Mr. Willard was one of the earliest and foremost institute speakers in New York. He was, too, for many years active in the development of the state fair in New York, having charge of the horticultural department, a position which he also held at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901. For nearly a half-century Mr. Willard has been prominent in his profession in the state and nation; he is known by all eastern fruit-growers and his vigorous and enthusiastic utterances in the press, from the platform and in conversation have made him a favorite authority with the fruit-growers of this generation.

[206] Prosper Julius A. Berckmans was one of the noted horticulturists and pomologists of the generation just passing. He was born at Aerschat, near Antwerp, Belgium, October 13, 1830, his father being Dr. Louis Edouard Berckmans, author of the splendid pomological work, Album de Pomologie, and as noted in Europe as was the son in America, in horticulture and pomology. The younger Berckmans was educated in Tours, Belgium and Paris, attaining distinction as a student in botany. In 1850 father and son came to America and the following year settled at Plainfield, New Jersey. Six years later the son moved to Augusta, Georgia, and established near that place a horticultural plantation, which he called “Fruitlands,” the nursery of which has become famous throughout the world. Soon after locating in Georgia, Mr. Berckmans became interested in horticultural organizations and later his activities were extended to the promotion of horticulture in the Nation. In 1859 he became a member of the first horticultural society in Georgia. In 1876 he helped to organize and was the first president of the Georgia State Horticultural Society, a position which he held until his death. In 1860 he became a member of the American Pomological Society and was at once intrusted with important committee work in that organization. His work here was done so well that in 1887 he was elected president of the society and later was four times re-elected. Mr. Berckmans was a member of a number of state and national horticultural and scientific organizations other than those named and was an honorary member of many similar societies in Europe. In 1893 he was chosen to make the opening address of the Horticultural Congress held at the World’s Fair in Chicago that year. Mr. Berckmans was eminent in entomology as well as in botany and horticulture and was interested in all the sciences. Through much reading, study and travel he became versed in literature and art as well as science. Mr. Berckmans’ fellow-workers in horticulture, his business associates and the patrons of his nursery, justly esteemed him for his amiability, integrity and public spiritedness. At his death, November 8, 1910, a well spent life was ended.

[207] Luther Burbank, known the world over for his work in bringing into being new plant forms, was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, March 7, 1849. He was educated in the common schools and in the local academy, his school-training being supplemented by much reading in the well-stocked library of which every New England town boasts. After leaving school, some time was spent in a factory in Worcester, Massachusetts, but, following a strong natural inclination to work with plants, he left the factory to grow vegetables and seeds. It was while so engaged that he grew the Burbank potato, most widely known and most valuable, if gauged by the monetary value of the crops produced, of all of his new plants. In 1875 Mr. Burbank went to California and a few years later began in a small way the plant-breeding nursery at Santa Rosa in which most of his work has since been done. The years preceding this beginning and several following it constitute a time of hard labor, sickness and of financial distress through which only a man of remarkable strength of character could have lived and kept the desire to continue his work. Following a decade, more or less, of difficulties after the start at Santa Rosa, Mr. Burbank’s career as a world-wide figure in plant-breeding may be said to have begun. One cannot briefly catalog the new forms of plants that have gone forth from his private place in California; they must number well into the hundreds; his biographer, in 1905, said that Mr. Burbank has worked with over two thousand five hundred distinct species (Harwood, W. S., New Creations in Plant Life 1. 1905). Among these have been practically all of the species of plums now under cultivation, from which have been obtained, according to Mr. Burbank, hundreds of thousands of plum-seedlings of which the breeder has selected a score or more of very distinct sorts, all interesting and a few of them very valuable. The many other fruits, flowers and forage plants which Mr. Burbank has sent out, each involving the handling of countless seedlings, cannot be mentioned here. Nor can his methods and results be discussed, except to say that in them he is a unique figure in plant-breeding and that they have been such that he has exercised a powerful influence toward the improvement of plants. The practical results of Mr. Burbank’s work have been as great or greater than those secured by any other person in plant-breeding, yet they have been magnified out of all bounds in the popular press and his work has been caricatured by calling the man a wizard and ascribing to him occult knowledge. Of the plants introduced by Mr. Burbank the proportion of really valuable commercial ones seems now to be small, but what he has done cannot be measured by money values; he has awakened universal interest in plant-breeding; has demonstrated that things unheard of before his time can be done with plants; and, all in all, his contributions in new forms of plants to horticulture and agriculture, in their intrinsic and educational value, make him the master worker of the times in improving plants.

[208] Statement in a letter from Mr. Burbank.

[209] Mr. Kerr in a letter written in 1909 says: “Wassu, as I have it, is radically different from descriptions of both Waugh and Bailey. The tree is as slovenly in habit as is that of the Burbank—there all resemblance ceases.”

[210] This French plum proved to be the well-known Peach. See Horticulturist 1:115. 1846.

[211] Mas Le Verger 6:61. 1866-73.

[212] Mr. Kerr writes: “As I have them here, Yeddo and White Kelsey are the same. If there is a difference between Georgeson and Mikado, I have failed to discover it, but Georgeson and White Kelsey or Yeddo are plainly distinct. The former is larger, rounder and more greenish in skin color.”

[213] Introduced by Wiley and Company of Cayuga, New York in 1892. See Cornell Sta. Bul. 131:193, fig. 47. 1898.

[214] Cornell Sta. Bul. 106:52. 1896.

[215] Pom. Mag. 3:148. 1830.

[216] Can. Hort. 18:117. 1895.

[217] H. A. Terry was born in Cortland County, New York, July 12th, 1826. His parents were from New England having come as pioneers to New York from Worcester, Massachusetts. The spirit of pioneering seems to have been strong in the Terry family for in 1836 the parents moved again to Livingston County, Michigan. The son, leaving his parents in 1845, again went westward to Knox County, Illinois, and still again in 1846 farther west to Pottawattamie County, Iowa. After this there were still more wanderings in which Mr. Terry and his family, he having married in 1848, were as far east as New Haven, Connecticut, for two years and again west to several places in Iowa. He finally engaged in the nursery business at Crescent, Iowa in 1857; he lived here for over fifty years, giving to the world his best services in the production of new fruits and flowers, and here his death occurred February 14th, 1909. Mr. Terry was noted as a peony and a plum specialist. Of plums he is the originator of over fifty sorts nearly all from the native species—a record unsurpassed in point of numbers for new varieties by any other plum-breeder. Several of Mr. Terry’s plums are of surpassing merit for varieties of their species; among these may be named such well-known sorts as Gold, Hammer, Hawkeye, Nellie Blanche, Crescent City, Downing and Milton. Most of his varieties are offspring of Prunus americana but there are a few from Prunus munsoniana and Prunus hortulana. Unfortunately there is little in regard to Mr. Terry’s method of breeding plums on record for he seems to have written or spoken little for publication. He was long a prominent member of the Iowa State Horticultural Society and for a number of years had charge of one of the experiment stations of this society. Of his work with peonies, of which he produced more than one hundred named sorts, and with other plants, space does not permit discussion. The last half of his life of more than four score years was a tireless effort to improve the fruits and flowers of the Mississippi Valley.

[218] Lauche Deut. Pom. No. 2. 1882.

[219] Cornell Sta. Bul. 106:53. 1896.

[220] Orville Morell Lord was born in China, Wyoming County, New York, April 20, 1826. When he was eleven years of age the Lord family moved to Lapeer, Michigan, where the subject of this sketch attended the district school and then for a time was in a private school at Pontiac, Michigan. In 1852 Mr. Lord moved to Winona County, Minnesota, where he built a saw mill, and for some years owned and managed a lumber yard. It was only after middle life that he became interested in horticulture and he then chose the native plums as fruits with which to work. He was not a breeder of plums and the Rollingstone, brought in from the wild and sent out by him in 1882, is the only addition to pomology, in the way of a new variety, made by him. The work with this fruit which has given him a name as a plum specialist was in testing hardy varieties. He tried thoroughly all the native plums to be obtained, and much of the present information as to the hardiness of plums for the cold northwest is due to knowledge gained from Mr. Lord’s experimental orchard. He became a member of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society in 1884 and in 1889 was made an honorary life member of this organization. For some years he was a Farmers’ Institute lecturer on horticulture and was for a time horticultural editor of Farm, Stock and Home. He was not only known in the Northwest as a plum specialist but carried on correspondence with plum growers throughout the whole country giving much valuable information regarding this fruit. Beside giving attention to plums he tested many apples for his region and was the originator of one or two varieties now very generally grown in his State. During his life he filled several places of public trust, being a member of the Territorial Legislature in 1853-4 and of the State Legislature in 1873-4. He also served at various times in minor offices in his County and in his State being at the time of his death a member of the Forest Reserve Board of Minnesota. With Peter Gideon he was one of the pioneer fruit-growers in the Northwest and while he has left few fruits of his own breeding and few records in print of the work he did, yet his long and faithful service in developing fruit-growing in the Northwest makes him one of the men of note in American pomology. Mr. Lord died July 21, 1906.

[221] Of this fruit Burbank writes to this Station under date of December 6, 1909, as follows:

“I have this season also about 65,000 or 75,000 Plumcot seedlings,—a wholly new fruit which promises great things for localities where it can be grown. These Plumcots vary more astonishingly from seed than anything which I have ever produced. No pure Apricots or pure Plums are produced, but every possible variety and every possible combination and all qualities are brought out strongly. The range of colors is astonishing,—some new combinations of colors never before seen in fruits have been produced. The best California judges of fruits—the great growers and shippers—have pronounced some of these varieties the best fruit ever produced on this earth. Most of these fruits have a beautiful downy skin—many of them smooth—flesh orange, yellow, white, crimson or green; pits peculiar. The fruits vary from about the size of a medium peach down to the size of Green Gage plums, though the various ones are of every possible size, form, flavor, color, time of ripening, etc. The trees, in some cases, grow faster than any other fruit tree. Sometimes branches grow on even quite young trees twelve feet in length and an inch in diameter in a single season. Others are quite slow growers or even dwarfs.”

[222] Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 105. 1891.

[223] J. W. Kerr, one of the best informed and most enthusiastic cultivators of native and Triflora plums, was born in York County, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1842. He is of Scotch-Irish lineage paternally and of English ancestors maternally. His education at the village school was supplemented by several years teaching and much reading and study in horticultural literature, fondness for which seems to have been inborn. In his early manhood Mr. Kerr engaged in growing trees for sale, a business with which he soon combined a fruit plantation in which he collected and tested all the plums that could be grown in his climate, comprising the great majority of the varieties of American species and of the Oriental plums. This work began in 1870, since which time no man has done more to popularize and improve native plums than Mr. Kerr. His most valuable work has been in testing varieties, where his knowledge of this fruit, his judgment and his sense of discrimination have made his opinion, as set forth in his nursery catalog and in the reports of horticultural societies, authoritative. He has, too, done considerable work in breeding plums, Choptank, Sophie and Maryland probably representing the best of his endeavors in originating new plums. It is a duty and a pleasure to acknowledge here the great services rendered by Mr. Kerr in the preparation of The Plums of New York.

[224] Emmett Stull Goff was born at Elmira, New York, Sept. 3, 1852. He was educated in the public schools and in the Elmira Free Academy, graduating from the last named place in 1869. The following years were spent on his father’s farm until in 1880 he became Associate Editor of an agricultural paper, but finding the work uncongenial he returned to the farm for a short time leaving again to accept in 1882 a position at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station which had just been established. Here for seven years Professor Goff gave his attention to vegetables. His classification of a number of vegetables, the pea, tomato, cabbage and onion in particular, are still standard in American vegetable culture. During his work at this Station he did much pioneer work in spraying plants and invented a device for mixing kerosene and water. In 1889 Professor Goff moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he became professor of horticulture in the University of Wisconsin and horticulturist of the Wisconsin Experiment Station. Here for fourteen years he gave his attention to various phases of fruit-growing and vegetable-growing. His bulletin 87 on “Native Plums” is the outcome of several years’ experiments in testing and breeding plums of such of our native species as will grow in Wisconsin. His work with plums is particularly valuable, as he was able, in his location, to do much to ascertain the degree of hardiness of many varieties of the species of cultivated plums. From his work with sterility and fertility of varieties came valuable recommendations regarding the cross-pollination of such varieties as are self-sterile. He is the author of Principles of Plant Culture and Lessons on Fruit-growing, text books much used in high schools and agricultural colleges. Professor Goff was a modest and retiring man but singularly independent of view in all things regarding his work and all things that concerned men—a serene, lofty-minded, unselfish man. His death occurred at Madison, June 6th, 1903.