PROCEEDINGS OP THE SUMMER MEETING. 173 



borne enough to pay for first cost of trees. But there are other attractive 

 sorts, coming late, that will produce enough. Among those that I have 

 tried, are Bavay, Coe's Golden Drop, Quackenbos, Pond, French Damson, 

 -and many other sorts I have not fruited. 



I have now what I may call the fifth full crop of jjlums in succession. 



The plum is very likely to overbear, and in so doing only produces a 

 crop in alternate years. I will give m^^ mode of treatment, to which 1 

 attribute in a large measure my having a good crop every year. 



I do considerable pruning and shortening in, sometimes cutting off 

 ends of branches back to where they are an inch in diameter. 



This is partly to avoid thinning, which I do not practice, as it is too 

 expensive to pay. I believe it would pay to thin them by hand if one 

 could do it without having to hire help; but to thin by paid help, it will 

 not pay, as I have tried it pretty thoroughly. 



It is all we can stand to thin the peaches, which we must do, and we 

 find that quite expensive, as I have had four men at it two weeks and they 

 can not see through yet. 



Then, as the plum is a heavy producer, I feed heavily with manure and 

 ashes, annually, and give the best of cultivation, as we must keep up the 

 grow^th in order to get fruit buds for the next season's crop ; and for the 

 past four dry seasons have still further helped the trees with their load, 

 by irrigation, which I do by hoeing the soil back from tree four to five 

 feet all around. This forms a dam to hold the water. In this I put about 

 a barrel of water, and when the water has soaked in about the roots the 

 dry soil is pulled back, forming a mulch to hold the moisture from escap- 

 ing. If it continues as dry as it has been the past two seasons, I repeat 

 this in about two weeks. I have found this treatment to make a marked 

 difference between the ai^pearance of the trees so treated and those not 

 irrigated, both of plum and pear. 



I watch closely for black knot, and cut it out in its first stage, w^hen it 

 looks like a brown wart, and by this means I have never lost a tree nor an 

 important branch hj this disease, and I have found a little of it for twelve 

 years. 



I spray mj' trees with Bordeaux mixture thoroughly, before blossom- 

 ing, and endeavor to do this as soon as the buds begin to swell. It is 

 just as well, I think, to do this spraying still earlier, and I am not sure 

 that it would not be just as effectual to do it in the fall after the foliage 

 had fallen. But whenever it is done it should be very thorough, the 

 solution reaching every branch, and the bod}' as well. 



I believe this spraying will have much to do with preventing black 

 knot, and I know it will prevent leaf blight and rot. 



I spray again, just as the swell is coming off the plum, with the same 

 mixture, to which I add a quarter of a pound of Paris green to fifty gal- 

 lons of the mixture. This I follow up two or three times, as the plum 

 grows, aiming to keep the surface of the fruit covered with the solution. 

 I know many will say this is useless against curculio; but, as the boy told 

 Prof. Gulley, last winter, I know I get the plums all right, and that is 

 the essential thing. 



