The plums of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

Prunus domestica

Of the two hundred and more varieties of plums which have fruited on the Station grounds, Miller Superb is one of the finest for dessert. The variety is of the Reine Claude group and is fully up with the best of these plums—all noted for high quality. In size and appearance, the plums resemble those of the well-known Bavay though usually larger. This plum originated with Colonel Charles Miller of Geneva, New York, when, is not known. About 1889, M. F. Pierson of Stanley, New York, secured cions of the plum from Colonel Miller and named the variety Miller Superb. It has never been introduced and is grown locally only to a very limited extent. Its large size, productiveness and superior quality should recommend it strongly for more general cultivation.

Tree of medium size and vigor, upright-spreading, open-topped, productive; branches rough as they approach the rough trunk; leaf-scars enlarged; leaves flattened, oval, two inches wide, three and three-quarters inches long; margin serrate or crenate, with few, small, dark glands; petiole long, thick, reddish, pubescent, with from one to three glands usually at the base of the leaf; blooming season of medium length; flowers appearing after the leaves, one inch or more across, white with yellowish tinge; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs.

Fruit intermediate in time and length of ripening season; one and three-quarters inches by one and five-eighths inches in size, roundish-oval or roundish-ovate, golden-yellow, mottled and splashed with green and sometimes with a blush on the exposed cheek, overspread with thin bloom; dots conspicuous; flesh light golden-yellow, juicy, firm but tender, sweet, pleasant in flavor; very good; stone clinging or semi-clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, ovate or oval, somewhat flattened, usually winged; dorsal suture grooved.

MILTON

Prunus munsoniana × ?

1. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 287. 1887. 2. Ibid. 393. 1892. 3. Ibid. 334. 1894. 4. Neb. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 201. 1897. 5. Wis. Sta. Bul. 63:24, 48. 1897. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 40. 1899. 7. Ia. Sta. Bul. 46:280. 1900. 8. Ala. Col. Sta. Bul. 112:178. 1900. 9. Terry Cat. 6. 1900. 10. Waugh Plum Cult. 187. 1901. 11. Can. Exp. Farm. Bul. 43:31. 1903. 12. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 445. 1903. 13. Ga. Sta. Bul. 67:277. 1904. 14. Miss. Sta. Bul. 93:15. 1905. 15. Ohio Sta. Bul. 162:256, 257. 1905. 16. Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 420. 1905.

The special merits of Milton, as compared with other native varieties, are that it blooms late and ripens early. It thus escapes frosts, when, for example, its parent, Wild Goose, might be injured; and its early ripening prolongs the season for native plums. The fruits are large, of very good quality, though a little too juicy for pleasant eating or to ship well, very attractive in appearance, and, more important than all else for the regions in which it is likely to be grown, it is comparatively free from rot. Unfortunately, the flesh clings most tenaciously to the stone even after cooking. In its fruit-characters, Milton strongly resembles one of the Mineri plums, but the tree is very much like that of Wild Goose, its known parent. In New York, Milton is one of the best of the native plums but it is hardly so considered in the Middle West, where these plums are most grown, judging from the discussions of it in the references given above.

Milton, a seedling of Wild Goose grown by H. A. Terry, Crescent, Iowa, first fruited in 1885. The originator believed that the other parent was an Americana, but from the characters of the tree it was more likely one of the Mineri plums. The American Pomological society added Milton to its fruit catalog list in 1899.

Tree of medium size and vigor, round and dense-topped, symmetrical, hardy at Geneva, productive, healthy; branches brash, rough, thorny, dark brownish-gray, with numerous, large, narrow and much elongated lenticels; branchlets very slender, willowy, medium to long, with internodes of average length, greenish-red, changing to dull reddish-brown, thinly pubescent, with numerous, conspicuous, small, slightly raised lenticels; leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, free.