Winter Mcctino-. 321 



"£> 



I will say right here that the man that raises plums don't want to 

 plant too many of them. You can't handle a large orchard of plums 

 like a large orchard of apples. 



Mr. Robnett: My trees are so thick I can't climb up in them. Do 

 you ever prune your Damsons' 



Mr. Karnes : No, sir ; not much. It does not do well to prune 

 them. I never tried pruning them much. The Wild Goose is a tree 

 that I prune for the first four or five years by cutting it back. Unless 

 you do, your limbs get so long and the foliage so heavy that they will 

 break off, and I practice cutting back, and get better fruit. I practice 

 the same thing on peach trees. 



A Question: When do you do that? 



Generally in the spring; February or ^larch or April — any time 

 along there before they bloom. 



Now the package I market in. The only package that I market 

 in, and the best I have found, is the common berry crate. I can get 

 not quite two crates out of a bushel of plums. They run about fifteen 

 crates to eight bushels. 



I have raised Japanese plums that 12 is as many as you could get 

 in a box, I have not used anything but twenty-four quart crates, and 

 they carry better and sell better. For the local trade I use nothing 

 but the eight-pound grape baskets. 



Time is getting short and I am going to pass on and notice a fev/ 

 of the Japanese plums. I have tried Willard, Wickson, Red June, Bur- 

 bank and Abundance. The Willard, Wickson and Red June went dur- 

 ing the winter of 1898, and I never tried to replace them. They were 

 all winter killed. Abundance I have tried for 12 years, and have never 

 succeeded in getting anything like a satisfactory crop until last year. 

 A mild winter and the remarkably dry summer, seemed to be the kind 

 of weather that suits them and Ihcy did remarkably well. Many of the 

 perfect specimens were two inches in diameter. Burbank the same 

 way ; but I would not advise anybody to raise Japanese plums, in order 

 to get any money out of them. If you get any specimens they are re- 

 markably fine, and they are pleasing to the eye, but they are not prof- 

 itable to raise in this country. Most of thorn are early bearers, and 

 Uicy are very tender and they rot very easily. 



Mr. Augustine : Is that your experience outside of that hard, se- 

 vere winter? 



Mr. Karnes : Yes, sir. 



Mr. Augustine: In tlic same latitude still fnitlior north, where 



