ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 239 



about half dozen plums, the first they had borne. The Miner and Bas- 

 sett, not one. 



Size about with ^Yild Goose, rounded, stem short, scarcely a third 

 as long- as that of Wild Goose. In gathering- cleaves to the fruit, un- 

 less very ripe, skin rather thin, light red, becoming very dark red when 

 quite ripe, flesh firm, juicy and with scarcely a trace of the astringency 

 next to stone so noticeable in Wild Goose. The tree is thought by 

 Mr. Onderdonk, of Texas, to be a hybrid between the Chickasaw and 

 European ; a vigorous grower, productive and hardy ; is easily propa- 

 gated from cuttings, and so can be used as a stock for budding. And 

 herein lies the promise of great things for the future of plum, peach 

 and apricot culture. We budded some 50,000 the past season, in 

 peaches, plums, and the new noted varieties of Russian apricots. Al- 

 though the buds were set at intervals during nearly five months from 

 June till October, it is a rather remarkable fact that repeated exam- 

 inations have failed to discover even one dead bud. The cuttings were 

 made about seven or eight inches long, and planted late in the fall of 

 1885 on a variety of soils ; did much better on a heavy black, rather 

 stiff, soil, about what our Texas friends would call blackwaxey, than 

 on either sandy or clay loam. On black soil about 80 per cent. grew. 

 Experience has satisfied us they cannot be made firm enough when 

 planted with dibbles, and we now plant in a sloping ditch and pound 

 them tight at the bottom as though they were miniature posts. In 

 fact, a great part of the loss in setting grafts, stocks, cuttings, and 

 even trees, for that matter, results from a failure to make the earth 

 sufficiently firm at the bottom. 



A plum stock free from the objections that attach to the use of 

 the St. Julien and the half-hardy, borer-ridden Myrobolean, that is not 

 difficult to work like our native plum seedling, which withal soon falls 

 behind the engrafted stock in the race for growth, and that does not, 

 like the horse plum, require a watchman continually on duty lest the 

 proper season for budding pass ungrasped, certainly meets the proverb- 

 ial "long-felt want." This the Marianna seems to do very fully and 

 completely. The cuttings are che^p, or soon will be, and are of easy 

 production. The cutting forms an admirable root and is easily worked 

 at any time till frost, perfectly hardy, not subject to borers or diseases, 

 and cannot readily be outgrown, even by the most luxuriant peach. 



Budded on Marianna, Wild Goose and Lombard, Golden Beauty 

 and Green Gage, will surprise even themselves, while peach trees 

 budded thereon will find it a congenial union, and, bidding defiance to 

 borers and all the ills peach wood is heir to, will be prepared to move 



