PLUJNIS AT THE SOUTH. 



PLUMS AT THE SOUTH. 



BY WM. N. WHITE, ATHENS, GA. 



A. J. Downing, Esq. — As the plum has ripened this year some three weeks earlier 

 than usual, and the season is nearly over for taking notes upon it, we propose to continue 

 our notices of southern fruit frrowing, by some remarks upon its culture, and notices of 

 the varieties tested in this section. 



This immediate vicinity is, perhaps, upon the whole, tolerably favorable to the plum. 

 The Chickasaw Plum is found abundantly in every old field, and there is no very serious 

 obstacle to the growth and culture of the improved species. We do not mean that the 

 plum ma}' be abused as the peach is — 'that you can plant a stone or a tree at random in an 

 " old field," or in a patch of Bermuda grass, and in two or three years therefrom gather 

 an abundant crop — and in case the seed be of a choice fruit, very likely find your seedling 

 of good quality — for such management will not do for the plum, unless it may be the na- 

 tive species. But though the plum requires some care and attention, there are few loca- 

 tions where it does not require as much, or where in the case of a few select varieties, the 

 reward is more sure. 



Our chief advantage is a complete exemption from the black knot, which in some parts 

 of the north I have observed, is apparently as fatal to the plum, as the frost or fire-blight to 

 the pear. This disease has never appeared here. In general, our trees appear perfectly 

 healthy, and make a fine vigorous growth yearly. 



We are, also, partially exempt from the curculio. He seems to confine his attention 

 very much to Apricots and Nectarines — usually taking the whole crop of these fruits — 

 but of plums, generally leaving enough of the crop not to render it unprofitable, without 

 resorting to shaking the tree, or calling in the aid of fowls or pigs. Our stiif subsoil of 

 clay and gravel, is too difficult to penetrate, perhaps, while the light gravelly loam that 

 often overlies, is, in general, too shallow to give him a quite comfortable protection from 

 sun and frost. But we by no means entirely escape. 



In 1849, a frost in April destroyed all our Apricots, Plums, Peaches and Nectarines; 

 and we were congratulating ourselves that the next year we should be free from curculio. 

 As the destruction of fruit was complete, bj' all theory the curculio should have perished 

 too. Will you believe it, when we state the obstinate imp utterly refused to sacrifice him- 

 self, to maintain even this most plausible of theories. It was absolutely certain, we 

 thought, that die he must, yet he did'nt, and in fact, destroyed more fruit, if anything, 

 than usual; so that if poultry and pigs are any protection, as they undoubtedlj'- are, it 

 must be by frightening, him away, or rendering his haunts uncomfortable, rather than by 

 any positive destruction to the curculio himself. 



But, though exempt from the black knot, and partially so from curculio, we are not 

 without some little troubles of our own. Occasionally a tree, or a part of it, dies in the 

 same way as the apole, by the sun striking the trunk or branches. The plum is apt to 

 throw out long branches, not much protected by foliage, which are sometimes blistered by 

 exposure, causing the parts above to perish gradually, and if not removed, injuring the 

 general health of the tree. This is not a very frequent disease, and shortening-in the 

 branches, as directed for the peach, will doubtless so clothe the limbs with foliage, as to 

 an efiicient preventive 

 find another difficulty in the want of adaptation of a good many plums that 



