17 



No plum can produce seed unless it is pollinated, and fruit cannot form unless 

 the seed is strong and vigorous. Those plums that are not fertilized will drop almost 

 with the blossoms; those that are partly or weakly pollinated will fall later, and 

 only those that are vigorous will grow to maturity. 



An examination of the fallen specimens will show that the curculio is also 

 responsible for a large share of the damage. This can only be remedied by careful 

 spraying and general tidy methods. 



Pruning. 



The pruning of plums as generally practised is a haphazard operation, and I 

 feel that I can safely prophesy that the plum growers fifty years hence will smile 

 at the methods of to-day. For no fruit has pruning received the scientific study 

 that spraying or even fertilizing has. Plums are no exception to the rule, and 



A good low-headed Reine Claude, two years planted; was cut back 

 to a whip and headed very low when planted In the spring of 1911. 



when we consider the various tree types even in the different species we have a 

 magnitude in variations and habits of growth. 



Americanas at best are generally a tangled, crooked, thorny bunch of limbs 

 that it is very difficult to work amongst. The cross and broken limbs must be 

 cut away, but the head left fairly thick to protect the trunk and main limbs. It 

 may be necessary to thin out a little, but sections to which this species is adapted 

 are cold and severe, and heavy pruning is not to be recommended. Low heading is, 

 however, strongly recommended. Even where the snowfall is heavy it is not neces- 

 sary to have a three or more foot trunk to protect the trees from the rabbits, etc. 

 A trunk of thirty inches as a maximum, and perhaps I should have said twenty- 

 four inches, is less liable to sunscald and winter injury. 



Japanese plums are also varied in their habits of growth. We have the extremes 

 in Barbank and Wickson. Burbank is a broad, low growing, flat-topped tree, while 

 Wickson is narrow and upright. Abundance is intermediate, in shape vasiform, 

 and may be taken as a t}^e. Burbank must be thinned out and headed in as much 



