100 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



trate what can be done in plum culture, I will put the matter in the 

 same ratio and figures that some of our great potato growers or seed 

 houses estimate their choice new varieties and yield or profit per acre. 

 The writer knows of two plum trees which, when nine years old, and the 

 second crop which they had produced, yielded $18 in cash. Figure 

 this at 135 trees per acre and you have the small sum of $1,215 per acre 

 the second year in bearing. Or otherwise take certain trees which have 

 yielded to the grower in net cash during twenty years from setting the 

 trees, $75 per tree, and at 135 trees per acre it would amount to $10,125 

 per acre in a period of twenty years. 



"As to the number of premiums and grand diplomas this county has 

 taken on the plum, they are quite numerous. It has received the silver 

 medal or diploma at the New Orleans fair, captured all the premiums 

 awarded at the late Detroit Exposition, and always carries off nearly all the 

 premiums awarded at our state and district fairs, and was never known to 

 fail wherever its fruit has been exhiljited. 



"Therefore plum culture has reached the top round of the ladder, or its 

 climax, in Oceana county." 



DISCUSSION OF PEOF. TAFT's TAPER. 



Mr. MoPiKiLL: At what stage of the disease are the black-knot spores 

 ready for their work of contagion? 



Prof. TATi'T: The knot begins to blacken in May. Soon afterward can 

 be seen upon it little brown protuberances, the summer spores. There are 

 four sets or crops of spores, the winter set ripening in January. There are 

 probably a million spores in any one of these specimens, a thousand in each 

 little black spot. Linseed oil will completely kill the spores, and cutting 

 is effective where it can be so done as to remove the whole of the knot. 

 Cut a foot below the knot, to be perfectly safe, and burn the cutting. I 

 would not cut a large limb, but pare it and paint with oil. Linseed is as 

 fatal to the knot as kerosene and is not, like kerosene, injurious to the 

 healthy bark. Do not bud from affected trees. The buds will be weak if 

 not diseased. Either raw or boiled oil may be used, and should be applied 

 as soon as possible after the knot appears. The worms found in the knots 

 are not the cause, but are bred therein after the knots appearance. Wood 

 ashes, sown broadcast, are the best manure for bearing trees. 



Benton Gebhart said he once cut knots from two young trees, applying 

 to one turpentine and to another linseed oil, and no more knot appeared. 



C. A. Hawley: I have had good success with plums in valleys but not 

 on hills. I plant eighteen to twenty feet. If placed too thickly the 

 trees take all the moisture from the ground and cause drouth. 



T. S. Gurney: Plum culture is so profitable that many more will soon 

 engage in it. I know of an orchard of one hundred Lombards. This sort 

 was marketed at a comparatively low price. The orchard hung full and I 

 was much surprised at the large size of the fruit — the largest I ever saw. 

 The owner watered them daily for four weeks and thought he made $20 

 to $30 per day. The trees were thinned, the crop was 300 bushels and 

 netted $500 to $600. 



Mr. Morrill said he had heard certain talk from which he inferred that 

 black-knot existed extensively in the orchard of an Oceana county man 

 who refused to take it out. If this is true, this boasted Eldorado of plum- 

 growing will soon be extinct. 



