PLUMS.
The European plums have come from ancestors that grow wild in the Caucasus and Asia Minor. The woolly-twigged varieties we see in New England gardens, and in better condition on the Pacific Slope, the Damsons and Green Gages, for two examples, are from European nurseries, originally. They do poorly in other sections of this country.
For this reason, horticulturists early began the improvement of our own wild plums : the low beach plum of the Atlantic coast, the Canada, the Chickasaw, the wild red, and the sloes of the Southeast. Each represented a large section of the country, and in the centre the Wild Goose, a natural hybrid appeared, which is the parent of two fine groups of cultivated varieties : the Miner of northern orchards, and the Wayland in the South. So this country is particularly rich in
plums.
Prunes are dried plums. The varieties suitable for drying are sweet and firm-fleshed. The city of Tours is the centre of the prune district of France. California raises quantities of prunes.
Japan has contributed some fine new varieties to the American plum orchards, some of the largest and finest being grown on the Pacific coast states.