Notes Upon Pi.ums. 173 



largely because some one else had done well with his plantation. 

 It would be easy to figure up the prospective crops from the plum 

 trees which are now growing in western New York and to see 

 that the product would very likely over-stock the market. But 

 it must be remembered that probably not more than half of these 

 trees will ever produce full crops of fruit. The same remark will 

 apply to any kind of fruit which is set in large quantities. The 

 success of fruit-growing is so intimately connected with the 

 thoroughness, care and business ability of the grower himself, 

 that one can never prophesy what the results of any fruit industry 

 are likely to be. In every fruit business there are likely to be a 

 great many failures, from the commercial standpoint, and 

 only a few pronounced successes. 



The plum thrives upon a variety of soils, but it generally does 

 best when planted upon clay loam. It usually thrives best upon 

 lands which are suited to pears, or upon the heavier lands which 

 are adapted to apples. Yet there are many varieties which thrive 

 well upon lands which are comparatively light and sometimes 

 almost sandy. 



The stocks upon which plums are grown are very various. By 

 far the greater number of the trees in the north are now grown 

 upon the myrobalan stock, which is a species of rather 

 slow-growing plum, native to southeastern Europe and south- 

 western Asia. This is the stock which is sometimes recommended 

 in the older fruit books for the making of dwarf trees ; but unless 

 the top is kept well headed in, the trees generally make normal 

 growth upon it. Trees grown upon this root are usually larger 

 and finer at one or two years of age than those grown upon other 

 plum stocks, and the probability is that they are nearly as useful 

 from the grower's standpoint as any other. However, there are 

 some varieties which overgrow the myrobalan, and the stock is 

 very likely to sprout from the ground and thereby cause trouble. 

 I am convinced that the most ideal stock, from the standpoint of 

 the grower, is the domestica plum itself, but it is more difiicult to 

 secure seeds of it, the stock is more variable and it is more likely 

 to be injured in the nursery row by the leaf fungi ; therefore, as 

 a matter of practice, the myrobalan has very generally supplanted 

 it. In the southern states the peach is largely used as a stock 



