Kerr is about the best of the yellow Trifloras and is one of the best
of all early plums of its species. It is very productive, sometimes
over-bearing, and should always be thinned. The quality of the plums
is good and the fruits are attractive in appearance. The faults of
the variety are that the fruits drop as they ripen, though they color
if picked green, and in some localities the tree-characters are poor.
This variety was imported from Japan by Frost and Burgess, Riverside,
California, and was distributed under the group name Hattankio No. 2
or Hattonkin No. 2. As Georgeson was also distributed under the same
name, though under a different number, confusion resulted. To better
distinguish between the two, L. H. Bailey, in 1894, named Hattonkin No.
2 Kerr, in honor of J. W. Kerr, the noted plum specialist, of Denton,
Maryland. In 1899 the variety was placed on the fruit catalog list of the
American Pomological Society. The following description is compiled.
Tree large, vigorous, upright, very productive; leaves large,
thick; blooming season late. Fruit early; of medium size unless
thinned, when it becomes large, variable in form, but usually
heart-shaped, yellow with thin bloom; skin thick; flesh yellow,
firm, subacid, sweet; fair to good; stone clinging, of medium
size, oval, turgid.
KING DAMSON
_Prunus insititia_
=1.= Watkins _Nur. Cat._ 48. 1892?. =2.= _Am. Gard._ =14=:146,
147. 1893. =3.= _Garden_ =53=:265. 1898. =4.= _Can. Exp. Farm
Bul._ 2nd Ser. =3=:51. 1900. =5.= Thompson _Gard. Ass’t_
=4=:161. 1901.
Bradley’s King 5. Bradley’s King of Damsons 3. King of Damsons
1, 2.
The fruit of King Damson runs large for a Damson and the flavor is
agreeable, so agreeable that the variety is really a very good dessert
fruit late in the season. This Damson is little grown in America and
deserves much wider cultivation. A peculiarity of the plum is that there
is always more or less doubling of the petals. Very little is known
regarding the history of this excellent variety, but it seems probable
that it originated in Kent, England, where it is much grown.
Tree small, lacking in vigor, upright-spreading, dense-topped,
usually productive; branchlets slender, pubescent; leaves
folded upward, oval or slightly obovate, one inch wide, two
and three-quarters inches long; margin serrate, usually with
small dark glands; petiole with one or two glands on the
stalk; blooming season intermediate, short; flowers appearing
after the leaves, usually with more than five petals, one inch
across, white with a yellow tinge at the apex; borne on lateral
spurs or from lateral buds, singly or in pairs.
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