240 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



dry one, or if the trees make a slow growth, it should be kept up until the 

 middle of August, using a fine-tooth, shallow-working implement. When 

 growth starts, a number of suckers will start up from the stub of the stock. 

 When they get to be two inches long they should be rubbed off, taking 

 pains to remove every portion. As a rule, no others will come out, but if 

 they make their appearance they should be promptly removed. The hoe 

 should be used this season sufficiently often to keep the crust between the 

 trees broken. The trees will be of a suitable size for orchard planting in 

 the fall or following spring. 



By the first of November, or earlier if most of the leaves have fallen, the 

 trees can be dug. In doing this, pains should be taken not to cut the roots 

 too short, as this would lessen the chances of living, and at best will shorten 

 the growth the first year. 



JUNE-BUDDED TREES. 



In some sections, what are known as June-budded trees are grown, but 

 they are of little value except as a means of rapidly projjagating new sorts 

 of which buds were not set in the fall. The scions must be cut in the fall, 

 or winter, and kept dormant until the stocks have begun to grow so that 

 the bark will lift. When the buds are set, most of the top is cut off, and in 

 two or three weeks the stock is cutback to the bud, which soon breaks and 

 forms a weak growth. In the south the method is used with fair success, 

 but in this state it has fe-w advantages and several disadvantages, the princi- 

 pal one, in addition to the weakness of the growth, being that it is likely to 

 make a late growth and be injured by the winter. 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE PLUM. 



During the past ten years the plum has come rapidly to the front as a 

 desirable fruit for the commercial grower. The success met with by the 

 people of Oceana county in the cultivation of this fruit, and the highly 

 remunerative prices obtained, have led to its being largely planted in various 

 sections of the state, and the returns thus far obtained from the earlier 

 plantings have been very generally satisfactory. 



There are many sections of the state in which this fruit can be grown, 

 where the peach will not thrive, and it will undoubtedly greatly increase 

 in value as a commercial fruit. 



While the care required by a plum orchard differs in some of its details 

 from that needed by the peach, the general principles upon which we work 

 are the same; we shall therefore treat the subject of plum-growing largely 

 by referring the reader to the preceding pages upon peach culture, and 

 merely pointing out the particular points in which the treatment given to 

 the plum should differ. 



SOIL AND CLIMATE FOR THE PLUM. 



The climate of Michigan seems well suited to the plum, and it is a sure, 

 crop in all parts of the state except in some of the interior counties in the 



