HALE
Prunus triflora
1. Burbank Cat. 19. 1893. 2. Ibid. 1894. 3. Cornell Sta. Bul. 106:52. 1896. 4. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. XI. 1897. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 41. 1899. 6. Cornell Sta. Bul. 175:147, 148, fig. 37. 1899. 7. Am. Gard. 21:36 1900. 8. Waugh Plum Cult. 136. 1901. 9. Mich. Sta. Bul. 187:77, 79. 1901. 10. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 89. 1902. 11. Ohio. Sta. Bul. 162:254, 255. 1905. 12. Ga. Sta. Bul. 68:10, 30. 1905. 13. Mass. Sta. An. Rpt. 17:160. 1905.
J 1. J 3. Prolific 2. Prolific 3, 8, 12.
It is doubtful if the average person who grows the Hale would recognize it as shown in The Plums of New York, as it is supposed to be a yellow plum; nevertheless the illustration is a good one so far as the fruits go at least. When mature on the trees the fruits are yellow with a faint blush, but in storage the color quickly changes into a pale red, becoming, when the plum is at its best in appearance and quality, a light currant-red. Hale, though large and handsome of fruit, is of questionable value, failing both in fruit and tree. The flavor of this plum is good in the judgment of most fruit connoisseurs, but others find it a little too sweet and somewhat mawkish near the skin and close about the pit. All agree, however, that the flesh clings too tightly to the stone for pleasant eating and that the texture is too tender for good shipping. But it is the tree that fails most markedly. Even on the grounds of this Station, where the peach is practically hardy, Hale is but semi-hardy, failing most often because with the best of care the wood does not ripen properly. The habit of growth is not particularly good, the trees are slow in coming in bearing, are not regularly productive and are readily infected by brown-rot and the fruits much infested by curculio. On the whole, it is to be regretted that Mr. Hale did not choose a better plum to bear a name so distinguished in horticulture.
Luther Burbank offered this plum, a cross between Kelsey and Satsuma, for sale under the name J, in 1893, and the following year as Prolific. J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury, Connecticut, purchased the variety in 1894, and introduced it as the Hale in 1896. In 1899, the American Pomological Society considered it worthy a place on its fruit catalog list.
Tree above medium in size, vigorous, vasiform, open-topped, semi-hardy, variable in productiveness; branches smooth except for the numerous, small, raised lenticels, somewhat thorny, dark ash-gray, the fruit spurs numerous; branchlets willowy, of medium thickness and length, with short internodes, greenish-red changing to light brown, shining, glabrous; lenticels numerous, small; leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, plump, free.
Leaves sparse, folded upward, oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, one and three-quarters inches wide, three and one-half inches long, thin; upper surface glabrous except for scattering hairs, with a grooved midrib; lower surface light green, glabrous except along the midrib and larger veins; apex acute or abruptly pointed, base acute, margin finely serrate or crenate, eglandular; petiole nine-sixteenths inch long, slender, tinged red, glandless or with from one to four globose or reniform, greenish-yellow glands on the stalk.
Blooming season early and of medium length; flowers appearing before the leaves, white; borne in thin clusters on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, with numerous hair-like glands, nearly glabrous, erect; petals roundish-ovate, entire, not clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments short; pistil glabrous except at the base, much longer than the stamens.