Notes Upon Plums. 175 



as to whether young trees should be headed-in. There can be no 

 positive answer to this question. If the trees are growing very 

 vigorously, so that they become too tall and whip-like, it is best 

 to head them in ; but it must be remembered that this redundant 

 growth commonly ceases and the tree begins to spread when the 

 bearing time arrives. If trees are making too vigorous growth, 

 the real corrective of the difficulty is to stop the growth by with- 

 holding fertilizers or cultivation rather than by heading-in the 

 tree. Vigorous heading-in only makes the growth the stronger. 

 All this is a very different matter from the customary heading-in 

 of old trees. Some growers prefer to let a plum tree take its 

 natural open, spreading growth, whilst others desire to keep it 

 sheared in to allow the trees to be planted clOvSer together and to 

 keep the fruit nearer the center of the tree. This is very largely 

 a matter of personal preference and there are probably no very 

 decided advantages in either system when it is carried out system- 

 atically and conscientiously. For myself, I believe that the 

 heading-in of plum trees is practiced to too great an extent in 

 western New York, but I should by no means be dogmatic in 

 this opinion. It should be said that the plum tree will need 

 pretty careful attention from year to year to keep the top in shape, 

 to cut out and paint over all injured places and in other ways to 

 protect the tree from accidents and from injuries of storm and 

 insects. 



In common with all fruits, the plum demands good tillage and 

 liberal feeding if satisfactory results are to be obtained. The 

 extended remarks upon the tilling and fertilizing of fruit lands 

 which are made in our Bulletins 72, 102, 103, and also in 119 and 

 120, apply with full emphasis to the plum. Well-tilled trees 

 should begin to bear when three years set, and, at eight and ten 

 years of age, the prolific varieties should be bearing three bushels 

 of first quality fruit in every good year. 



InseHs and diseases. — In respect to insects and diseases of the 

 plum, it will not be necessary to say much upon this occasion. 

 The black-knot is fully treated in our Bulletin 81. It is only 

 necessary to say in passing that the knot is best kept in check by 

 systematically cutting it out whenever it is seen. At all events, 

 the grower should go over his orchard for it in the summer time 



