of Rural Art and Taste. 



147 



is taken off, are turned under, and the ground 

 turned to some other purpose ; tlius one good 

 crop of choice fruit is taken from the ground, 

 avoiding an inferior second crop. 



Any system which involves suitable varie- 

 ties, suitable management and good culture, 

 will be hearly sure to yield good profit. 



During the season of 1873, which will be 

 remembered as excessively dry, one cultivator 

 saved the crop of three and a half acres, on 

 light soil (yielding nearly $1,80U), by water- 

 ing — using a small steam boiler, pump and 

 hose. Two and a half acres of the same field, 

 unwatered, failed, from drouth, so as hardly 

 to be worth picking. 



Much has been said about the profit of fruit 

 culture, but the profit usually depends on ju- 

 dicious management — which makes all the 

 difference between full success or complete 

 failure. Think of one train of twenty-three 

 cars, soino- into Chicago, with one hundred 

 tons of strawberries, and count up the thou- 

 sands of markets, large and small, all over 

 our counti-y, and you will see that many mil- 

 lions of dollars result to the cultivators of 

 this delicious fruit. 



Middlefield, Conn. 



Editorial Note. — The market train from 

 Delaware to New York, in strawberry-season, 

 has reached as high as one hundred cars, with 

 no less than 40U,000 quarts, in a single morn- 

 ing, while, for days, the supply averaged 

 thirty to fifty cars, and over 100,000 quarts. 

 The State of Delaware is the largest fruit 

 State on the Atlantic coast ; its strawberry 

 crop of 1873 was over 3,000,000 quarts ; its 

 peaches over 3,000,000 baskets. It is the 

 largest poultry State in the Union ; the total 

 value of poultry and eggs shipped to market 

 is larger than all its total receipts from/? wz7. 

 Delaware sweet potatoes command a premium 

 of one dollar per bushel above all others. 



The Wild Goose Plum 



liV JAMES FAUKEE, StJIMIT, MISS. 



''rmS variety has fruited with us the past sea- 

 ^ son, and it has far surpassed our expectation. 

 It may be described as follows : Size, large 

 oval, or egg sha,pe ; color, clear beautiful red. 



almost transparent ; flavor, good, and, in our 

 estimation, a better plum than the Red Mag- 

 iium Boimm. Some of the specimens were 

 larger than the above named variety and 

 more reliable, and not subject to the attacks 

 of the Curculio. There is not the least doubt 

 of it as a profitable market fruit. With us it 

 is more reliable than the peach, and ripening 

 about the same time as Hale's Early — that 

 is, from the 10th to 20th of June. 



Mode of Pr<ypafjation.—li will be well 

 to give a few brief hints on its propagation. 

 We find that grafting is the best ; and the 

 stocks used are healthy one year old, seedling 

 peach, growing in nursery rows. The best 

 time to commence grafting is when the stocks 

 commence to put forth their leaves in spring. 

 We head down the stocks close to the ground, 

 and prepare the scion in the old-fashioned 

 style of cleft grafting, split the crown and 

 insert the scion, tie with grafting cloth. When 

 a row is grafted, we draw the soil carefully 

 up to the top bud. In this way we do not 

 lose scarcely a single one. We prefer this 

 mode to root grafting, as we find it moi'e sue-- 

 cessful, and, in fact, makes a more healthy 

 and free growing tree. Last fall we tried fall 

 grafting in a very small way, more for experi- 

 ment than anything else. We grafted one 

 dozen Wild Goose Plums about the last of 

 October. They did very well, only a few 

 died. The weather was very dry at the same 

 time, and neglected to draw the soil to the 

 scions. This was the cause of some of them 

 failing. But though some success may be 

 gained in fall grafting, we would not recom- 

 mend it to any extent. The soil best adapted 

 to plum culture is a mixture of clay and loam, 

 with a stiff" clay subsoil. And if thoroughly 

 subsoiled before planting, no other cultivation 

 is required, unless to keep the big weeds and 

 grass cleared from around the trees. And, 

 for our climate, the clump system is the best 

 mode to be successful in the culture of the 

 plum — that is to say, plant ten feet apart, 

 without any regard to any straight line regu- 

 larities. The soil should never be cultivated, 

 or even stirred around the trees. 



The Wild Goose Plum may be relied on. 



