As this variety grows in the Station orchard it is a remarkably fine
plum. The fruits are attractive, of high quality and the tree-characters
are for most part very good. It is certainly a desirable plum for any
home plantation, and if it proves as productive elsewhere as about
Geneva, it may well be worth growing in commercial orchards.
Freeman is a chance seedling found in the yard of a Mr. Freeman of
Cortland, New York, about 1890 and shortly afterwards introduced by
E. Smith & Sons of Geneva, New York, but is as yet hardly known by
plum-growers.
Tree intermediate in size and vigor, upright-spreading,
productive; branchlets slender, pubescent; leaves oval, one
and one-half inches wide, two and three-quarters inches long;
margin serrate or almost crenate, eglandular or with small dark
glands; petiole reddish, glandless or with from one to four
globose glands; blooming season intermediate, short; flowers
appearing after the leaves, creamy-white, usually in scattering
clusters at the ends of lateral spurs; borne singly or in twos.
Fruit mid-season, ripening period short; about one and one-half
inches in diameter, roundish or roundish-oval; cavity very
shallow, small, often lipped; color golden-yellow, blushed
and mottled with red on the exposed cheek, covered with thin
bloom; flesh light golden-yellow, firm but tender, sweet,
pleasant flavor; very good to best; stone dark colored,
free, seven-eighths inch by five-eighths inch in size,
irregular-oval, somewhat flattened, abruptly contracted at the
base, with surfaces roughened; ventral suture prominent.
FREESTONE
[Illustration: FREESTONE]
_Prunus insititia_
1. _Am. Gard._ =14=:148. 1893. 2. Waugh _Plum Cult._ 129. 1901.
Freestone Damson 2.
Freestone is a Damson separated from other Damsons chiefly in being
sweeter and more free of stone. It is so inferior to varieties of its
species in several particulars as to have little value for commercial
planting. The fruits are smaller and the pits larger in proportion to
the amount of flesh than with several better known Damsons and the trees
do not bear as large crops as plums of this species should; these faults
of fruit and tree condemn the plum. To offset the defects in the tree,
freedom from black-knot and immunity to leaf-blight may be mentioned as
compensating somewhat. Still Freestone is hardly to be mentioned as worth
planting in either home or commercial orchard. The origin of this Damson
is unknown. Stark Brothers, Louisiana, Missouri, who introduced the
variety about 1889, describe it as “a selected sort which is very hardy,
free from insects, and productive.”
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