RETORT OF THE HORTICULTURIST 99 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



basin, medium depth and width, smooth ; flesh, yellowish, juicy, sweet, tender, melting ; 

 core, small ; quality, good ; season, late October. Promising. 



PLUMS. 



There was little injury to the plum orchard by winter this year, as far as the 

 wood of the trees was concerned, but the flower buds on the European varieties were 

 all killed, there not being a single fruit of this type of plum. There were a few 

 plums of the Japanese variety known as Botan, but this is of little value here. Some 

 of the Miner type of plums yielded fairly well, but these seldom fruit heavily here. 

 The Americana and Nigra varieties blossomed abundantly, and a number of kinds 

 fruited heavily, but the crop was not an average one on these trees, as the weather 

 during the blossoming season was wet and unfavourable for proper pollination. 



There is no doubt that in the Ottawa district, and where the climate is similar, 

 the main dependence must be on the Americana and Nigra plums. These varieties, 

 though not equalling the European plums in richness and tenderness of skin, afford 

 good substitutes where better kinds cannot be grown successfully. The Nigra, or 

 native plum, is thinner in the skin than the Americana, but not as rich. The fruit 

 is also usually badly affected by blight (Cladosporium carpophilum, V. Thumen), 

 and unless thoroughly sprayed does not mature, the blight affecting it when it is 

 nearly full grown, causing it to wither and fall to the ground before maturing. The 

 Nigra plum is also more affected by curculio than the Americana, which lessens the 

 crop very much. 



The Americana plum is a heavy bearer of handsome plums which, though, as a 

 rule, thick skinned, are handsome and of good quality, though sometimes astringent. 

 During the past few years there have been many named varieties offered for sale and 

 some of these are very good indeed, being much larger and richer than the older 

 sorts. 



This year, when there was an abundance of European plums on the market from 

 Western Ontario, the Americana plums, grown at the Farm, sold readily for 50 cents 

 per 12-lb. basket. A tree of Bixby plum, planted in 1893, gave a yield of ll£ gallons, 

 which, at 50 cents for 12-lb. basket was $2.87 worth of fruit from that tree, and in a 

 good season the yield would be much more. The following quotation from a recent 

 letter received from Mr. Alex. Stewart, Hull, Que., a prominent fruit-grower in this 

 vicinity, is evidence as to the esteem with which these plums are held by other grow- 

 ers. He writes : — ' I have not fruited a very great number of Americana plums as 

 yet, as my orchard is young, but I am very proud of some of those that I have fruited. 

 Their hardiness, fine appearance, and good quality make them of great value to the 

 fruit grower of Eastern Ontario, and the Ottawa Valley in particular. The best five 

 I have fruited so far are as follows : — Hawkeye, Stoddard, Wolf, DeSoto, Wyant. 

 ' I sold my plums in 10-lb. grape baskets at 40 cents per basket ; 20-lb. baskets 

 of western plums sold for 65 cents per basket at the same time. People will pay a 

 third more for the local fruit. I took eleven 10-lb. baskets of Hawkeye off one tree 

 five years planted. That will pay well. There will be quite a few plums planted about 

 Ottawa next spring. I have given lists of the best varieties to a number of people. 

 In five years from now we will see some good plums about Ottawa, and we may thank 

 the Experimental Farm for their introduction.' 



Mr. H. C. Carstesen, Billings Bridge, Ont., who makes a specialty of the native 

 plum, Prunus nigra, has also kindly furnished me with some information regarding 

 his success with them. Mr. Carstesen's trees are practically all seedlings of his own 

 raising, some being much better than others. The soil in which they are growing is 

 a heavy clay loam. The trees are kept thoroughly sprayed with Bordeaux mixture to 

 prevent blight. Mr. Carstesen now has between 300 and 400 trees in his orchard, but 

 tnany of these are young. Some of his trees have yielded from four to five 10-quart 

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