Kerr is about the best of the yellow Trifloras and is one of the best of all early plums of its species. It is very productive, sometimes over-bearing, and should always be thinned. The quality of the plums is good and the fruits are attractive in appearance. The faults of the variety are that the fruits drop as they ripen, though they color if picked green, and in some localities the tree-characters are poor. This variety was imported from Japan by Frost and Burgess, Riverside, California, and was distributed under the group name Hattankio No. 2 or Hattonkin No. 2. As Georgeson was also distributed under the same name, though under a different number, confusion resulted. To better distinguish between the two, L. H. Bailey, in 1894, named Hattonkin No. 2 Kerr, in honor of J. W. Kerr, the noted plum specialist, of Denton, Maryland. In 1899 the variety was placed on the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society. The following description is compiled.
Tree large, vigorous, upright, very productive; leaves large, thick; blooming season late. Fruit early; of medium size unless thinned, when it becomes large, variable in form, but usually heart-shaped, yellow with thin bloom; skin thick; flesh yellow, firm, subacid, sweet; fair to good; stone clinging, of medium size, oval, turgid.
KING DAMSON
Prunus insititia
1. Watkins Nur. Cat. 48. 1892?. 2. Am. Gard. 14:146, 147. 1893. 3. Garden 53:265. 1898. 4. Can. Exp. Farm Bul. 2nd Ser. 3:51. 1900. 5. Thompson Gard. Ass’t 4:161. 1901.
Bradley’s King 5. Bradley’s King of Damsons 3. King of Damsons 1, 2.
The fruit of King Damson runs large for a Damson and the flavor is agreeable, so agreeable that the variety is really a very good dessert fruit late in the season. This Damson is little grown in America and deserves much wider cultivation. A peculiarity of the plum is that there is always more or less doubling of the petals. Very little is known regarding the history of this excellent variety, but it seems probable that it originated in Kent, England, where it is much grown.
Tree small, lacking in vigor, upright-spreading, dense-topped, usually productive; branchlets slender, pubescent; leaves folded upward, oval or slightly obovate, one inch wide, two and three-quarters inches long; margin serrate, usually with small dark glands; petiole with one or two glands on the stalk; blooming season intermediate, short; flowers appearing after the leaves, usually with more than five petals, one inch across, white with a yellow tinge at the apex; borne on lateral spurs or from lateral buds, singly or in pairs.
Fruit late, season long; one and one-eighth inches by seven-eighths inch in size, oval, slightly necked, black, with thick bloom; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy, firm, sprightly, becoming sweet late in the season; of good quality; stone clinging, five-eighths inch by three-eighths inch in size, irregular-ovate, slightly necked.