The plums of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

Prunus americana

1. Minn. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 126. 1890. 2. Wis. Sta. Bul. 63:49 fig., 50. 1897. 3. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 111. 1899. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1899. 5. Ia. Sta. Bul. 46:282 fig. 1900. 6. Waugh Plum Cult. 158. 1901. 7. Ont. Fr. Gr. Assoc. 143. 1901. 8. S. Dak. Sta. Bul. 93:26. 1905. 9. Ill. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 422. 1905. 10. Ia. Sta. Bul. 114:141. 1910.

Snooks 10.

New Ulm is worthy of attention because of its large, handsome, well-formed fruits. The plums are further distinguished by a peculiar flavor, somewhat suggesting that of the mandrake, pleasant to some but disagreeable to others. The flesh is a little too juicy for pleasant eating but the fruits ship well, the tough, thick skin firmly holding its contents. The fruits, however, do not keep well, for, despite the thick skin, the spores of the brown-rot find entrance and thrive so that the variety rots badly. The trees are hardy and productive but ill-shaped and hard to manage in either the orchard or the nursery for which reason the culture of the variety is discouraged by nurserymen and it is now almost impossible to buy New Ulm trees. The illustration of this variety shows well the characters of the western type of Prunus americana in leaf, fruit and stone.

New Ulm was raised from seed of a wild variety that grew in the neighborhood of the originator and introducer, C. W. H. Heideman, New Ulm, Minnesota. The fruit was exhibited at the Minnesota State Fair in 1890 where it attracted much attention, being the largest plum of fifty varieties exhibited. In 1899 the American Pomological Society placed the variety on its fruit catalog list. The Minnesota State Horticultural Society, in spite of the fact that this plum has gained a good reputation for its size and productiveness, removed it from its recommended fruit list in 1904 because of the difficulty of growing the trees in the nursery.

Tree of medium size, spreading and drooping, irregular, low and dense-topped, undesirable in habit of growth, hardy, usually productive, subject to attacks of shot-hole fungus; branches very rough and shaggy, zigzag, thorny, dark ash-gray, with large lenticels; branchlets thick, long, willowy, with long internodes, green, with a faint yellow tinge, changing to light and dark, dull reddish-brown, glabrous, with numerous, conspicuous, large, raised lenticels; leaf-buds small, pointed, strongly appressed.

Leaves drooping, folded upward, oval or ovate, two inches wide, four and three-eighths inches long, thin; upper surface dark green, changing to reddish-yellow late in the season, glabrous, with a grooved midrib; lower surface silvery green, lightly pubescent; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt, margin coarsely and doubly serrate, eglandular; petiole slender, five-eighths inch long, pubescent, tinged with red which deepens in color at the base, glandless or with from one to three globose, greenish-brown glands usually on the stalk.

Flowers intermediate in time and length of blooming season, appearing after the leaves, showy on account of the numerous pure white petals, one and one-sixteenth inches across, white; borne in dense clusters on lateral spurs and buds, usually in threes; pedicels seven-sixteenths inch long, thick, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube red, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes long, narrowly obtuse, lightly pubescent on the inner surface, thickly pubescent along the glandular-serrate margin, erect; petals oval, entire or incised, tapering below to narrow claws of medium length and with reddish base; anthers yellow; filaments seven-sixteenths inch in length; pistil glabrous, much shorter than the stamens.

Fruit mid-season, intermediate in length of ripening period; about one and three-eighths inches in diameter, roundish-ovate, halves equal; cavity markedly shallow, very narrow; suture a line; apex roundish or slightly pointed; color carmine over a yellow ground, overspread with thin bloom; dots very numerous, russet; stem five-eighths inch long, glabrous, adhering somewhat to the fruit; skin thick and tough, astringent, adhering strongly; flesh golden-yellow, very juicy and fibrous, granular, tender and melting, sweet with a strong aromatic flavor; good; stone adhering, seven-eighths inch by nine-sixteenths inch in size, oval, slightly flattened, blunt at the base, pointed at the apex, with smooth surfaces; ventral suture distinctly winged; dorsal suture narrow, shallow, grooved.