Pacific 3. Pacific Prune 2, 3. Willamette 4, 5, 7. Willamette Prune 3.
No part of America is so well adapted to plum culture as the Pacific Coast and especially the inter-mountain valleys in Oregon. From the last-named State, though fruit-growing is a very recent development, a number of meritorious plums have been added to pomology. One of the best of these, as they grow in New York, is the Pacific, the fruits of which are well shown in the color-plate. Few purple plums are more beautiful than this in color and shape, few equal it in size and very few of its color excel it in quality. The trees are unusually robust, perfectly hardy and productive. In Oregon the Pacific has not proved a good prune-making plum but is reported as standing eastern shipment very well, which, if true, indicates that this plum would succeed as a market fruit in New York. Pacific is well worth trying in New York as a commercial variety.
This plum is hopelessly confused with the Willamette. The following is an abridged account of the two fruits as written us by H. M. Williamson, Secretary of the Oregon State Board of Horticulture, and one of the leading authorities on fruit-growing on the Pacific Coast.
“About 1875 Jesse Bullock of Oswego, Oregon, sent to Germany for pits of the Italian or Fellenberg prune, and planted the pits received in a nursery row. When the trees from these began to bear, Mr. C. E. Hoskins went to Mr. Bullock’s place, examined the fruit and selected trees which seemed promising, giving to each tree a number. From at least six of these trees he took scions, propagated them, and named them Bullock No. 1, Bullock No. 2, etc. He finally decided that only two of these, Bullock No. 1 and Bullock No. 6, were of sufficient value to justify their further propagation. Bullock No. 1 was named Champion and Bullock No. 6, Willamette. Mr. Hoskins told me these names were given by the State Horticultural Society, but I find no record of this action. He propagated and sold a good many trees of both varieties, but more of the Willamette than of the Champion.
“Mr. Hoskins was strongly of the opinion that the Pacific is identical with the Willamette. I am as strongly of the opinion that they are distinct varieties. I base my opinion, first, upon the history of the origin of the Pacific given me by Henry Freeboro, Portland, Oregon, who introduced it; and, second, upon what appear to me to be marked differences in the two prunes. A number of years ago I went to Mr. Freeboro’s place when prunes were ripe and obtained from him a supply of Pacific prunes grown on trees propagated by him from scions taken from the original Pacific tree. I took these prunes to Springbrook and compared them with the Willamette grown on Mr. Hoskins’ place. I was thoroughly convinced that the two were decidedly different in character, but Mr. Hoskins did not think so. I noticed first a marked difference in the habits of growth of the trees. The Pacific trees were of unusually vigorous growth and had a decided upright tendency. The Willamette trees were very similar to the Italian in vigor and had the rather spreading habit of growth of the Italian. The Pacific prunes are larger in size than the Willamette and vary much more in size. One of the most decided indications of difference is the far greater tendency to brown-rot of the fruit of the Pacific than is the case with the fruit of the Willamette. This has been observed when scions of the Willamette and of the Pacific have been grafted on the same tree for the purpose of comparison. I have never seen a well dried specimen of the Pacific, but this may have been the fault of the men who dried the specimens I have seen. The Willamette dries easily for a prune of its size and gives a larger percentage of dried to fresh fruit than the Italian, according to Mr. Hoskins.
“I believe the Willamette is well worthy of more attention in the Willamette Valley, whereas the Pacific, on account of its extreme susceptibility to the brown-rot, does not appear to be a safe variety here, although when perfect it is a magnificent prune for eating fresh, and one of the very largest known. I am told that in eastern Oregon where climatic conditions keep out the brown-rot, the Pacific is proving one of the best varieties for shipping fresh. At the present time the two varieties are much confused. When the Pacific prune was introduced, Mr. Hoskins and other recognized authorities, pronounced it the Willamette, and nurserymen therefore obtained scions from Willamette trees and sold the propagated trees as Pacifies, and in a more limited way the reverse was done. The greater part of the trees supposed to be Pacifics are in fact Willamettes.”
At this Station we have the two plums under discussion, the Pacific having been obtained from Fred E. Young, nurseryman, Rochester, New York, and the Willamette, under the name Pacific, from the Oregon Wholesale Nursery Company, Salem, Oregon. The differences between the two plums in New York are essentially those given by Mr. Williamson as distinguishing characters in Oregon.
Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, open-topped, hardy, productive; branches ash-gray, smooth, with small, raised lenticels; branchlets above medium in thickness, short, with short internodes, greenish-red changing to brownish-red, covered with heavy bloom and sparingly pubescent, with indistinct small lenticels; leaf-buds plump, of medium size and length, obtuse, free.
Leaves obovate, two inches wide, four inches long, the oldest thick and leathery; upper surface dark green, covered with fine hairs, with a widely and deeply grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, pubescent; apex acute or obtuse, base acute, margin crenate, with small dark glands; petiole seven-eighths inch long, thick, pubescent, tinged red, with from two to four large, globose, yellowish-green glands usually on the stalk.
Blooming season of medium length; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and three-sixteenths inches across, white; borne on lateral spurs and buds, singly or in pairs; pedicels five-sixteenths inch long, thick, pubescent; calyx-tube green, campanulate, pubescent only at the base; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, lightly pubescent on both surfaces but heavily pubescent along the serrate margin, reflexed; petals oval, dentate, tapering to short, broad claws; stamens inclined to develop into rudimentary petals; anthers yellow; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.