206 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



POSSIBILITIES OF PLUM-GROWING. 



BY MR. BENTON GEBHABT OF HART. 



In cultivating and growing tlie plum for general market, there is yet a 

 possibility of making it a profitable business, providing certain rules and 

 conditions are carried out. 



First in order to success is to have or select a good all-purpose soil. 

 I prefer a heavy, sandy loam with a clay subsoil, if such soil is convenient 

 to have, and, if not, any sandy or clay soil will grow plums. If on sandy 

 soil and quite light, fertilize well, and always plant trees on such soil 

 of the varieties that succeed on peach root. 



Select choice, No. 1 stock — strong one-year-old if on peach root, and two 

 years old if on plum root — for planting. Cut otf the ends of all large and 

 broken roots, so as to have a clean cut at the end of each root before set- 

 ting the trees. Head in the top from half to two thirds of its growth;, 

 plant with care, setting trees from eighteen to twenty feet apart; cultivate 

 and take the best care each year thereafter; give the young trees an annual 

 pruning, cutting in from one third to one half of the past season's growth 

 of wood each spring until the orchard comes into full bearing. The orchard 

 requires thorough pruning, such as heading in long, straggling growth, 

 thinning out crowded tops and limbs that cross each other. 



And unless one has a stiff clay, or moist and cold location, for his 

 orchard, I would always select and plant all varieties that can be grown 

 .on peach root, for the simple reason that the trees are just as long-lived 

 and even longer, sometimes, than on i^lum roots. Young orchards on the 

 peach are much the finer and faster growers; have larger and finer foliage, 

 and will carry their heavy crops of fruit, in case of a drought, uiuch 

 better than on the plum root. There is an objection to having the ]»lum 

 on peach root by many growers on account of the borers, but this is all 

 nonsense, as more trees are killed each year by the borers on the plum 

 root than on the peach with us in Oceana county. 



In setting your trees on peach, plant them a little deeper, in order to 

 have the union near the top of the ground, and, furthermore, you never 

 will be troubled with plum sprouts coming up all over j'our orchard like 

 some varieties do. I have taken out and killed more peach-borers from 

 the Lombard variety on plum root, which had many sprouts cut off at or 

 near the trunk, than I have ever found on all other varieties on the peach 

 during all my past experience of growing plums; and I actually believe 

 a large majority of our bearing plum trees, which die annually, are so 

 injured and partly killed by the borers, and with such heavy crops of 

 fruit, that the loss of such trees is largely due to the borers. One or tw^o 

 borers in a plum root will kill the tree, while, on the peach, it will injure 

 it somewhat, but the tree will soon recover and go on growing as if 

 nothing had ever happened to the trees. This has come under my observa- 

 tion a number of times, and I know it to be a fact. 



So, in conclusion, I say, plant your plum orchards with trees budded on 

 the peach root. After the orchard comes into full bearing, say from four 



