Winter Meeting. 



317 



The spring plowing should be given as scon as the ground can be 

 worked to advantage and though it need not be deep, should be as 

 thorough as the conditions will permit." Experience with plums dur- 

 ing the past hot dry weather showed very clearly the advantage of 

 cultivation. Cultivated trees made a fair growth and plums were near- 

 ly the usual size of more favorable seasons, while uncultivated trees 

 made very little growth and often the plums were shriveled, rind large- 

 ly worthless. Successful plum growing is largely dependent upon the 

 tlioroughness of the orchardist in 

 destroying various insect pests 

 that attack the plums. Spraying 

 and what poultry has done, so 

 far, have secured me a good yield 

 of perfect plums. Perhaps I 

 should add that I have practiced 

 picking up fallen plums before 

 the larva made its escape into the 

 ground and put them in a box 

 where the poultry could destroy 

 the larva. This no doubt checks 

 the work of the curculio consid- 

 erably, but in growing plums on 

 a large scale, jaring the trees, and 

 the curculio catcher will become __^ 

 a necessity. ' pooles pride. 



Japan and Domestic varieties that I am growing have not yet 

 been attacked to any great extent with plum rot. I am inclined to be- 

 lieve that much can be done towards holding the disease in check by 

 removing all diseased plums soon as discovered and burning them : 

 but a more certain remedy would be to spray thoroughly before the 

 buds start in the spring with a strong Bordeaux mixture, or a pure 

 vitrol solution. 



The distance to plant plum trees is perhaps an unsettled question. 

 Strong spreading kinds seem to require more room than those of a 

 more upright growth. I am planting strong growing native varieties 

 i6xi6 feet, and Japan and Domestic kinds 12x16 feet. This will not 

 give any more room than required for spraying and the use of the cur- 

 culio catcher. Thinning fruit of varieties inclined to overbear certain- 

 ly comes under the head of successful plum growing and is the part 

 that is much neglected. I quote again from Prof. Waugh's able work, 

 Plums and Plum Culture. "Thinning is important with many kinds 



