Eureka 5. Perfection 1, 2. Perfection 4, 14.
It is difficult to estimate the value of Wickson in American pomology. Probably no plum of recent introduction has been on the one hand so highly lauded and on the other so condemned as this one. Its remarkable size, the largest of the Oriental plums if not the largest of all plums; its handsome color and distinct form; the firm flesh and peculiar flavor, generally considered pleasant; the narrow upright tree with its long lanceolate leaves, mark the variety as a new and for some parts of the country a valuable addition to pomology. The contradictory evidence as to its desirability arises from the fact that it can be well grown in comparatively few plum-growing regions, most of these being on the Pacific Coast and in the South. In New York, the Wickson has small value other than in private collections. The variety is a little tender in tree and bud, hardy only in favored parts of this State and not at all where the peach cannot be grown; it blooms too early to be safe from frost; it is susceptible to brown-rot; the trees are late in coming in bearing and are not reliable in fruiting; the fruits ripen unevenly; and the trees are not of good form for heavy crops. In California, however, the Wickson is one of the leading Japanese sorts, possibly the leading one, and is seemingly growing in favor. Starnes, one of the pomological authorities of the South, in his bulletin on Japan and Hybrid Plums, speaks of Wickson as a “grand plum” and as one of the best for Georgia. It is to be hoped that from the same cross which produced Wickson or from breeding this variety with some other, a plum of this type well suited to New York may sometime be offered the plum-growers of this State.
Wickson is one of the best known of Burbank’s many plums. The variety was first described in the report of the Secretary of Agriculture in 1892 under the name Perfection and as a seedling of Kelsey crossed by Burbank. In 1893 and 1894 Burbank offered for sale the control and the stock of this variety but found no buyers and in 1895 introduced it himself. The parentage of the variety is in doubt. Burbank considered it a Kelsey-Burbank cross; the Pacific Rural Press described it as offspring of Kelsey and Satsuma; Bailey, Waugh and the workers at this Station believe it to have Prunus simonii characters. The foliage, flowers, the tree, the fruiting habit, the texture of the flesh, all indicate Simon as one of its parents. According to the report of the Secretary of the California State Board of Horticulture shipments of this plum were made to New York in the season of 1897 under the name of Eureka. In 1899 it was placed on the fruit catalog list of the American Pomological Society.
Tree medium to large, vigorous, with narrow, upright head, dense-topped, tender to cold, an uncertain bearer; branches medium in smoothness, the fruit-spurs numerous, dark ash-gray with tinge of brown, with lenticels of medium size; branchlets thick and long, with short internodes, greenish-red changing to light chocolate-brown, glossy, glabrous; lenticels numerous, raised, variable in size; leaf-buds small, short, obtuse, free.
Leaves folded upward, lanceolate or oblanceolate, one inch wide, three inches long, thin; upper surface dark green, glossy, glabrous, with a slightly grooved midrib; lower surface pale green, glabrous, except along the midrib; apex taper-pointed, base cuneate, margin finely serrate, with reddish glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, lightly pubescent along one side, faintly tinged red, glandless or with from one to nine small, reniform, greenish or yellow glands variable in position.
Blooming season early and of medium length; flowers appearing after the leaves, intermediate in size, white; borne in clusters on lateral spurs, in pairs or in threes; pedicels of medium length and thickness, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute, erect, glandular-ciliate; petals oval, entire, short-clawed; anthers yellowish; filaments below medium in length; pistil glabrous, longer than the stamens.
Fruit early mid-season, period of ripening long; variable in size, the larger fruits about two and one-eighth inches in diameter, obliquely cordate, halves unequal; cavity deep, abrupt, with yellowish concentric rings; suture often prominent and deep, with a prolonged tip at the apex; color dark red over a yellow ground, indistinctly splashed with darker red, mottled with thin bloom; dots numerous, small, yellow, inconspicuous, densely clustered about the apex; stem thick, eleven-sixteenths inch long, glabrous; skin thin, tender, separating easily; flesh amber-yellow, juicy, coarse, somewhat fibrous, firm, sweet, pleasant but not high in flavor; good; stone clinging, one inch by five-eighths inch in size, oval or ovate, pointed, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture winged; dorsal suture grooved.