More plums

Friday 15th August, 1823 –Through the medium of Dr Hosack I learned of a fine plum named ‘Washington’, a name which every product in the United States which is great or good is called. Purchased by a Mrs Miller about thirty years since out of the flower market. After standing in her garden for five years it was during a thunderstorm cleft nearly to the bottom, which caused its death so far as was rent. 

Next Spring it sent up suckers and the great Wm Boulmer, Esq., obtained one of them, which he planted in his garden and in a few years produced fruit without any grafting; the fruit has improved every succeeding year, the taste being the best. The original soil was removed and three cartloads of good soil from a cultivated field taken in and the tree-plant given a little decayed vegetable matter as a manure [a compost mulch, in other words]. He lays its roots totally bare during the winter months. I put the above fruit in spirits.

After 194 years, David, some things simply haven't changed a bit. The plum tree on my allotment gets an annual mulch of compost and any surplus plums are preserved in vodka! Yummy alcoholic plums!

Peaches and Plums, and the Elgin Botanic Garden

August 12th & 13th, 1823 - Early this morning we crossed the River Hudson and visited some of the finest fruit-orchards of that place. I saw one particularly fine, belonging to an old Dutch farmer, consisting of twenty acres. Of peaches he had about 24 varieties. The stones he sows in April; they generally make their appearance towards the middle of May, after which he takes care to keep them clear of weeds, by means of a plough drawn by one horse. Plums are [also] frequently raised from seed. The whole of this day was occupied in the gardens, and was devoted chiefly to ornamental plants in the swamps.

Thursday, August 14th, 1823 – This day I visited the Botanic Garden, which is now, I am sorry to say, in ruins; one of the hot-houses is taken down, one stripped of the glass, and the greenhouse still in a sort of form. Some good trees and all the herbarium plants are gone from the greenhouse, and have been given to the lunatic asylum.

In the afternoon I called on a Mr Codie, who had a good fruit orchard and garden; he promised me some fruit in the autumn and seeds of melon, in which he excels.

Both these entries see Douglas carrying out his remit from the Horticultural Society, of investigatng varieties of plants and, particularly, fruit which it would be advantageous to introduce to Britain.  

The Botanic Garden is the Elgin Botanical Garden established by Dr David Hosack, functioning between 1804 & 1812, so it would be well and truly "in ruins" by the time Douglas saw it in 1823. It stood on the site now occupied by the Rockefeller Centre and there is a commemorative plaque on one of the walkways there.