Part 25 (1/2)

By the term ”plums we already have” for the purpose of this paper we shall include only those varieties that have given general satisfaction over a large territory and for long term of years, and in the writer's opinion every one of such varieties are of full blooded, pure Americana origin.

The DeSoto takes the lead of them all. It undoubtedly has more good points to its credit than any other plum we have ever grown. The Wyant and the freestone Wolf are considered as being the next two most popular varieties. These were all wild varieties, found growing in the woods of Wisconsin and Iowa many years ago.

There are a few other Americana varieties that are nearly as good as are some of those enumerated, but at present we shall not attempt to name them. There are many otherwise fine varieties that are not included in this list of plums we already have, but because of a certain weakness of the blossom they require to be intermingled with other varieties, or the blossoms do not fertilize properly. They only bear well when conditions are very favorable. We cla.s.s such varieties as being not productive enough.

Many attempts, with more or less--generally less--success have been made to improve our native plums through the growing of seedlings. Mr. H.A.

Terry, of Crescent, Iowa, has done more of such work in his day than any other one man. His method was to plant the Americana kinds, like the DeSoto, alongside of varieties of the Hortulana type, like the Miner, then growing seedlings from the best plums thus grown. From such cross bred seedlings Mr. Terry originated and introduced a great many very fine varieties. But where are they today? The Hawkeye and the Terry are about the only ones the general public knows very much about. I will venture this statement, that as far as I know there is no variety of native plum in which there is an intermingling of Hortulana or Chickasaw type that has proven productive enough to be generally profitable.

The Surprise plum belongs to this type, as also does the Terry plum. The Terry plum we want to keep a while longer, not because it is a mortgage lifter for the growers but because of the extraordinarily large size of its fruit, as well as for its fine quality.

There are many injurious insects and fungous diseases that tend to make life a burden to the man who tries to grow plums in a commercial way.

Among the insects are the plum curculio and the plum tree borer, better known as the peach tree borer. The curculio sometimes destroys all of the fruit on the tree, and the borer very often will destroy the whole tree of any variety.

Among the fungous diseases are the shot hole fungus and the plum pocket fungus, but the worst of all is that terribly destructive disease of the plum known as the brown rot. This brown rot fungus sometimes destroys the whole crop of certain varieties, besides injuring the trees sometimes as well. This one disease has done more to make plum growing unpopular than all other causes combined. Give us a cheap and efficient remedy, one that will destroy the rot fungus and not do injury to the foliage, buds or tree, and a long stride will have been made towards making plum growing popular as well as profitable.

_j.a.panese hybrid plums._--Just now the j.a.panese hybrid varieties are attracting considerable attention. One prominent Minnetonka fruit grower said this to me about them:

”Mr. Cook, what is the use of making all of this fuss about these new plums? Plums are only used for the purposes of making jelly anyway, and we can usually get a dollar a bushel for our plums, and they would not pay any more than that, no matter how large and fine they are.”

This brought me up with a jerk, and I have concluded that no matter how advanced a place in horticulture these new hybrid plums may eventually take, that there will always be a place for our native varieties, even if only for the purpose of making jelly.

It seems to the writer that in view of the fact that after many years'

attempt to improve our native plum through the process of seed selection--and we have made no material advancement in that line--that the varieties of plums that are on the way must almost of necessity be the product of the Americana and some of the foreign varieties of plums.

Mr. Theo. Williams, of Nebraska, a few years ago originated a great many varieties of these hybrid plums. He claimed to have upward of 5,000 of them growing at one time. Only a few of them, however, were ever sent out. Of these the writer has been growing for quite a number of years the Eureka, Emerald, Stella, Omaha, B.A.Q. and some others. As a cla.s.s they are all reasonably hardy for my section. They grow rapidly, bear early, usually the season after they are planted or the top grafts set.

They set fruit more freely and with greater regularity, as the seasons come, than do the best of our native varieties. The fruit is of larger size and of firmer flesh, while the quality of some of them, like the B.A.Q., ranks rather low. The quality of others of them, like the Emerald, is almost beyond comparison.

One year ago in answer to a question by the writer as to why the people of Iowa did not take more interest in the planting of these hybrid plums of Mr. Williams, Mr. C.G. Patten stated that it was because the plums rotted so badly on the trees. Now, Mr. Patten stated the situation exactly--most of these fine varieties are notoriously bad rotters. The brown rot seems to be a disease of moist climate. Nature's remedy is an abundance of suns.h.i.+ne and a dry atmosphere, but we cannot regulate the climate. Prof. Hansen has sent out a few varieties of these j.a.panese Americana hybrid plums, and our Supt. Haralson is doing a great work along this line. We can only hope--but cannot expect--that Mr. Hansen's hybrids or Mr. Haralson's hybrids as a cla.s.s will prove more resistant to the brown rot than do those of Mr. Williams of the same cla.s.s.

We have hopes that from some of Mr. C.G. Patten's hybrids of the Americana and Domestica plum will come some varieties worthy of general planting, and also of Prof. Hansen's crosses of the Americana plum and the Chinese apricots.

There is another cla.s.s of hybrid plums that are something wonderful in their way, beginning to bear nearly as soon as they are planted, the very earliest of all plums to ripen its fruit, immensely productive and of finest quality. I refer to Prof. Hansen's sand cherry hybrid plums.

My opinion is that Prof. Hansen has done all that man can do in the way of producing elegant varieties of this cla.s.s of fruit. But there is the uncertainty, however, or perhaps I had better say the certainty, that the brown rot will take a good portion of the crop nearly every season--sometimes only a part of the crop, and other seasons it may take the entire crop of these fine sand cherry hybrid plums.

Bordeaux mixture has been the one remedy advertised for years for the control of this disease, and however well it may work in the hands of experts of the various university farms, it has not proved uniformly successful in the hands of the ordinary fruit grower.

Now, if some medicine should be invented, or some magic made, whereby the brown rot would be banished from our orchards then a great many of the fine varieties of hybrid plums would be transferred from the ”plums that are on the way” to the list of ”plums that we already have.” The brown rot is a controlling factor.

Mr. Kellogg: What do you know about the Surprise?

Mr. Cook: Oh, I know a little more than I want to know about it. I have had the Surprise a good many years.

Mr. Kellogg: You have been surprised with it?

Mr. Cook: Yes, sir, I have been surprised quite a bit, but in the last two years since the plum crop failed there have been a few plums on the Surprise trees, but for a great many years when other plums bore heavily we got nothing.

Mr. Hansen: Do you know of any plum that has never had brown rot?