48 Bulletin 139. 



any fruit for anyone to plant. The merit of a variety must be meas- 

 ured by the uses to which it is to be appHed and by the tastes of the 

 planter, quite as much as by its intrinsic characters. The correspond- 

 ent rarely specifies whether he wants a red plum or a yellow one, an 

 early or a late, for dessert or for market. It is like asking a man at a 

 distance what fence a c|uestioner shall put in his back lot, without say- 

 ing whether it is to be a pig fence, hen fence, sheep fence, cow fence, 

 or a fence merely to mark off his premises from his neighbor's. I can 

 state what varieties I might plant for myself, but my selection might 

 not be such as would please my neighbor. For myself, I should still 

 adhere to my list of four varieties of two years ago — Red June, 

 Abundance, Burbank, Chabot. I should place as second choice 

 Douglas, Berckmans, Satsumn, Hale and Wickson, and should expect 

 that the last two would rise, upon further acquaintance, to a place in 

 the first rank. If I wanted a yellow plum, I should take Georgeson, 

 with Ogon for early. If I wanted the earliest varieties, without 

 respect to size or quality, I should choose Berger, Engre, Earliest of 

 All and Willard. 



L. H. Bailey. 



