Annual Meeting at St. Joseph. 161 



Dr. A. GosUn — Does anyone notice that the Wild Goose plum 

 does not bear unless near some other wild trees. His do not. 



N. F. Murry — Has found the same trouble and in an orchard 

 of 75 trees, in one corner he has a wild plum and five trees from 

 that he has plenty, but on the rest none. Thinks we need some 

 tree near them to fertilize them. 



THE PLUM ; DOES IT NOT BEEED MORE CURCULIO 

 THAN THE FRUIT IS WORTH ? 



BY C. A. FINK, LAMAR, MO. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of tlte Missouri Horticultural 

 Association : 



I have been called upon to write and read you a i)uper on the 

 fruiting of the plum. It is with a degree of diffidence that I un- 

 dertake to serve you in this matter, knowing that there are othei' 

 gentlemen present much more able and better qualified to edify 

 your meeting than myself. 



But I will try to give, in a brief manner, a little of my observa- 

 tion and experience in my efforts to grow plums. 



The question is asked : "Does not the fruiting or growing of 

 the plum breed more curculio than the fruit is worth ? " My 

 opinion is that it depends altogether upon how we go about it. 

 About sixteen years ago, I moved to and settled in Barton county. 

 Mo., with ti purpose to go into the business of growing fruit. In 

 1871 I set out about two hundred trees of the best European 

 varieties — twelve or fifteen kinds, that were recommended by the 

 books as the best. ^ also set out about a dozen native plums I 

 bought for Wild Goose. I gave them all good care and cultivation. 

 Three years after planting, the Goose plum commenced to fruit 

 some, but the curculio got them all the first two years. The third 

 year I saved about one-half of the crop by smoking and fighting the 

 bugs. About the same time the European varieties commenced to 

 bloom more or less. I cultivated and waited on them from eight to 

 ten years. By that time they were either dead or dying. I then 

 gave up and threw them in the brush heap. 



Tire Wild Goose fruited every year more and more as they grew 

 larger and older and the curculio increased more abundantly than 



