FURST
Prunus domestica
1. Mas Le Verger 6:45. 1873. 2. Lange Allgem. Garten. 2:421. 1879. 3. Oberdieck Deut. Obst. Sort. 413. 1881. 4. Lauche Deut. Pom. 8, Pl. 1882. 5. Guide Prat. 159, 363. 1895.
Eugen Fürsts Frühzwetsche 4, 5. Fürst’s Frühzwetsche 2, 3, 4. Fürst’s Frühzwetsche 1, 4, 5. Quetsche Précoce de Fürst 1, 5.
Furst would undoubtedly be well worthy of very general cultivation in plum orchards were it not for the fact that it is very similar to the Italian Prune. The two fruits differ only in season, the Furst being a few days earlier, and in the tendency of the variety under discussion to shrivel about the neck. It may be that Furst will succeed in some localities where the Italian Prune is not a success.
Furst was propagated by the Baron of Trauttenberg, Prague, Bohemia, who had received it from Professor Pater Hackl, Leitmeritz, Bohemia, under the name Furst, given in honor of Eugene Furst, son of the founder of the School of Horticulture of Frauendorf, Bavaria. Furst Damson has been confused with this variety, but it is a different plum. Its fruits are distinctly necked and much inferior in quality, and its shoots are glabrous, while in this variety they are not. The United States Department of Agriculture introduced Furst in 1901 and through them this Station received cions for testing.
Tree of medium size, round-topped, productive; branchlets thick, marked with slight scarf-skin; leaf-scars very prominent; leaves folded upward, obovate, two and one-half inches wide, four and one-half inches long; margin doubly serrate or almost crenate, eglandular or with small dark glands; petiole thick, pubescent, glandless or with from one to three globose glands usually on the stalk; blooming season late; flowers one and one-eighth inches across, white, the opening buds tipped with yellow; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in twos.
Fruit late; one and seven-eighths inches by one and one-half inches in size, oval, slightly necked, purplish-black, covered with thick bloom; dots numerous, reddish, conspicuous; stem thick; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy, very fibrous, firm, sweet, mild, with pleasant aroma; good to very good; stone one and one-eighths inches by five-eighths inch in size, free, irregular-oval, with rather long, tapering, oblique apex, the surfaces heavily pitted; ventral suture prominent, often winged; dorsal suture wide.