Bradshaw leads all other plums in number of trees in New York, according to a survey of the leading orchards made in the preparation of The Plums of New York. A study of the variety does not justify this popularity. The trees grow rather slowly and are slow in coming into bearing; the fruit is not especially high in quality and in many regions is attacked by brown-rot too freely for profitable orchard culture. To offset these faults the trees are large and well formed, bear regularly and heavily, are hardy, robust and healthy, the best of recommendations, and the plums are large, attractive in appearance and keep and ship well especially if picked a little green. The variety, curiously enough, is not nearly as badly attacked by San José scale as other plums. Probably one of the reasons why Bradshaw is so largely grown in New York is that it is easily handled in the nursery and quickly makes a very good nursery tree. Bradshaw does not deserve the high place it holds with plum-growers, and must give way sooner or later to better varieties for commercial orchards. The value of the crop is greatly lessened in New York because it ripens in the midst of the peach season.
Unfortunately, the origin of this plum is not known. The Europeans and some Americans have held that it came from America but, since it is identical with the Large Black Imperial, it must be of foreign origin. It was named by C. M. Hovey in 1846, and was described in his Magazine of Horticulture with the following explanation: “For the want of a name to distinguish a very large and excellent plum, exhibited for three or four years in succession, by E. E. Bradshaw, Esq., Charlestown, we have called it the Bradshaw plum.” Barry, in 1855, states in the Horticulturist that he “received it from Wm. Kenrick, a nurseryman in Newton, Massachusetts, under the name of Large Black Imperial; but as it has been described in Hovey’s Magazine as Bradshaw, we have adopted that name in our catalog.” Though the name Bradshaw is incorrect according to the rule of priority, it would now cause too much confusion to change it.
Niagara, a well known variety in this State, is identical with Bradshaw in all characters, in spite of a supposedly distinct origin. According to Mr. George Atwood of the State Department of Agriculture, a Mr. Moody of Lockport exhibited, about 1870, the Mooney plum, afterwards named the Niagara. Being interested in the variety, Mr. Atwood visited Mooney, at Lockport, the man from whom Moody had secured his stock. In Mooney’s yard were found several bearing trees, which had been grown from sprouts taken from the original seedling tree, grown in Canada. These trees could not be told from the Bradshaw. If the Niagara is distinct as to origin, it is probably a seedling of Bradshaw. Bradshaw was recommended to fruit-growers as a promising variety by the American Pomological Society in 1856 and has since remained on the fruit list of the society.
Tree large, vigorous, broad-vasiform, dense-topped, hardy, very productive; branches smooth except for the numerous, small, raised lenticels, dark ash-gray; branchlets short, with long internodes, greenish-red changing to brownish-red, often with heavy gray scarf-skin, dull, sparingly pubescent, with obscure, small lenticels; leaf-buds variable in size and length, pointed, free.
Leaves drooping, folded backward, obovate or oval, two inches wide, four and one-quarter inches long, thickish; upper surface dark green, rugose, pubescent, with a shallow groove on the midrib; lower surface grayish-green, thickly pubescent; apex acute, base abrupt, margin not regular, varying from coarsely crenate to serrate, eglandular or with few, small, dark glands; petiole three-quarters inch long, pubescent, reddish, glandless or with from one to three large, globose, greenish-brown glands on the stalk or at the base of the leaf.
Season of bloom short; flowers appearing after the leaves, one and three-sixteenths inches across, the buds creamy changing to white as the flowers expand; borne on lateral buds and spurs, singly or in pairs; pedicels nearly eleven-sixteenths inch long, pubescent, green; calyx-tube greenish, campanulate, pubescent only at the base; calyx-lobes wide, obtuse, pubescent on both surfaces, glandular-serrate, margins ciliate, reflexed; petals broadly oval, erose, with short, broad claws; anthers yellowish; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long; pistil pubescent at the base, shorter than the stamens.
Fruit mid-season; two inches by one and three-quarters inches in size, oval or obovate, compressed, halves equal; cavity shallow, narrow, abrupt, with a fleshy ring around the stem; suture very shallow; apex roundish or flattened; color light purplish-red changing to dark reddish-purple at maturity, covered with thick bloom; dots numerous, small, russet, inconspicuous, clustered about the apex; stem thick, seven-eighths inch long, pubescent, adhering strongly to the fruit; skin thin, somewhat tough, sour, separating readily; flesh dull yellow, often with a trace of red when fully mature, juicy, fibrous, somewhat tender, sweet, pleasant; good; stone semi-free, flattened, one and one-quarter inches by three-quarters inch in size, irregularly oval, necked at the base, blunt at the apex, strongly roughened and pitted, often with numerous, small, deep pits near the margins of both ventral and dorsal sutures; ventral suture strongly furrowed and winged; dorsal suture with a deep, narrow groove.
BRYANSTON
Prunus domestica