132 Bulletin 175. 



that there is practically no clanger from the early swelling of the 

 buds. 



The Japanese phims are less seriously attacked by insects and 

 fungi than the common European or Domestica type is. They are 

 not entirely free from the shot-hole fungus, black-knot, curculio and 

 other difficulties ; but in our experience these troubles have been so 

 infrequent or of such minor importance as not to attract serious 

 attention. The fruit-rot is often serious on the Japanese phims, but, 

 in our experience, it is equally or even more serious on the Lom- 

 bard. If the Japanese plums are properly thinned there seems to 

 be no unusual susceptibility to the fruit-rot fungus. 



The larger part of the Japanese plum stock which is sold by 

 nurserymen is on peach roots ; and on tln^se roots they seem to 

 thrive. However, we find that they do remarkably well when top- 

 worked on Lombard stocks. Theoretically, we are to expect the 

 best results wdien they are worked on their own roots ; and these 

 plums are now so extensively planted that the time cannot be far 

 distant when seed can be obtained cheaply enough to warrant the 

 raising of Japanese plum stocks. It remains to be demonstrated, 

 however, whether the Japanese plum roots are actually better than 

 the peach or the Domestica plum roots. 



In former reports we have spoken of the great variation of 

 Japanese plums in respect to the period of ripening. We find that 

 the same trees often do not ripen their fruit in the same sequence 

 in different years. In some years there may be a difference of two 

 weeks in ripening between the Abundance and Burbank, whereas, 

 in other years, the very same trees may ripen their fruit almost 

 simultaneously. The period and sequence of all fruits are greatly 

 modified by the particular season, but the Japanese plums seem to 

 be particularly unstable in these respects. 



Ever since we began the study of these Japanese plums, we have 

 l)een puzzled to account for the great differences in opinion respect- 

 ing the merits of individual varieties and the wide discrepancies in 

 descriptions of them. Some of these discrepancies are traceable to 

 a confused nomenclature ; but we now believe that many of them 

 are due to the fact that the same tree maj- bear unlike fruit in dif- 

 ferent years. Some of the trees which we have had under the 



