The plums of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

LOMBARD

LOMBARD

Prunus domestica

1. Kenrick Am. Orch. 268. 1832. 2. Ibid. 224. 1841. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 303 fig. 124. 1845. 4. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 345 fig. 265. 1849. 5. Goodrich N. Fr. Cult. 84. 1849. 6. Elliott Fr. Book 412. 1854. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 190, 210. 1856. 8. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 929 fig. 1869. 9. Mas Le Verger 6:151, fig. 76. 1866-73. 10. Country Gent. 48:981. 1883. 11. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 423. 1889. 12. Guide Prat. 160, 359. 1895. 13. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:242, 246. 1899. 14. Ia. Sta. Bul. 46:279. 1900. 15. Waugh Plum Cult. 114 fig. 1901. 16. Can. Exp. Farm Bul. 43:34. 1903. 17. Ohio Sta. Bul. 162:240, 256, 257. 1905.

Beekman’s Scarlet 3, 6, 8, 11, 12. Bleecker’s Scarlet 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. Bleeker’s Scarlet 11. Bleeker’s Rotepflaume 11. Bleekers Rothe Pflaume 12. Bleeckers Rothe Pflaume 9. Lombard 11. Lombard Plum 1. Montgomery Prune 8, 11. Prune Rouge De Bleeker 9, 11. Rouge de Bleecker 12. Spanish King? 14, 15. Variegated Plum 1.

The Lombard plum is known by all. It is not as largely planted in New York as a few other varieties, but it is probably more widely grown than any other plum if the whole continent be considered. The preeminently meritorious characters which enable it to take first place in American plum-growing are: The elasticity of its constitution whereby it adapts itself to widely different soils and climates; the robustness, healthiness, productiveness and regularity in bearing of its trees; the fact that the fruits are comparatively free from the scourge of the crescent sign, plum-curculio; and, lastly, its showy fruits tempting to the eye and readily salable. The tree-characters of Lombard are all good, making so superior a tree that it, more than any other variety, is recommended as a stock upon which to graft weak-growing plums. It is a virile variety and from it have come a considerable number of offspring mostly from self-fertilized seeds which have given us several nearly related varieties and strains. There are also a few very good cross-bred plums of which Lombard was one parent. Lombard would be preeminently the plum “for the millions” were it not for a fatal fault—it is very poor in quality. Canned, cooked, preserved or spiced, it does very well, but as a dessert fruit it falls in a category with the Ben Davis apple and Kieffer pear, “good-looking but poor.” The variety ripens so early as to come in direct competition with the peach and this hurts it not a little as a market plum. To be at its best the crop should be thinned and should be allowed to ripen fully on the trees. Lombard is now much used in the canneries in New York and is also planted in home orchards where only hardy plums stand the climate. In the markets it is usually a low-priced plum.

Lombard was raised by Judge Platt, Whitesboro, New York, from seed received from Amsterdam (References, 2). Another writer (References, 10) reports that the trees were brought over from Holland by some of the earliest Dutch settlers of Utica and Whitesboro. The name was given to the plum about 1830 by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in honor of Daniel Lombard of Springfield, who was the first to propagate the variety in that state. It was previously well known in New York as Bleecker’s Scarlet (References, 3), but was never formally described under that name which must, therefore, though the older, be discarded. In 1856, it was placed on the recommended list by the American Pomological Society. Several varieties, as Communia, Tatge, Spanish King and Odell, are very similar, if not identical to the Lombard and, consequently, have caused much confusion in the nomenclature of the variety. This similarity is probably explained by the fact that the Lombard produces seedlings very nearly true to type. Professor J. L. Budd, in a letter written in 1898 to this Station, says, “The fruit of Communia is much like that of Lombard, but this can be said of a hundred or more east European varieties.” Professor Budd had traveled much in Europe and knew plums very well. His statement, therefore, is entitled to credence and indicates, together with other circumstances, that Lombard is one of an old group of plums the varieties of which are very similar.

Tree of medium size, round-topped, very hardy, productive; branches stocky, dark ash-gray, smooth, with few, small lenticels; branchlets thick, medium to long, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to dull brownish-red, marked with gray scarf-skin, glabrous early in the season, becoming pubescent at maturity, with a few, inconspicuous, small lenticels; leaf-buds of medium size and length, conical, appressed; leaf-scars prominent.

Leaves long-oval or long-obovate, one and five-eighths inches wide, three and one-half inches long, medium to thick; upper surface dark green, thinly pubescent, with a grooved midrib; lower surface silvery-green, lightly pubescent; apex acute, base somewhat tapering, margin often doubly serrate, eglandular or with small, dark glands; petiole one-half inch long, thick, tinged red, pubescent, glandless or with one or two globose, yellowish-green glands usually at the base of the leaf.