246 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE PLUM ORCHARD IN JULY AND AUGUST. 



DEWAIN COOK, JEFFERS. 



Cultivation may be continued up till, say, the fifteenth of July. 

 July and August, I believe, is the best time to take a scythe and 

 mow off any plum sprouts or any tall growing weeds that may 

 have been left by the cultivator. 



These two months are also as good a time as any to dig out 

 any borers that may be burrowing in the trees. Any strong jack- 

 knife is all right for this purpose. While we are digging out the 

 borers we usually cut away any very rough bark that may be on 

 the trunk or large branches of the trees. We notice that the trees 

 with very rough bark are more liable to be attacked by borers than 

 are the smoother barked trees. 



Right here would no doubt be the proper place to say something 

 about spraying the fruit as a preventative of plum rot. I have 

 done so little of it that I do not feel qualified to enter into details, 

 but will say that spraying to be effective during wet seasons as 

 a preventative of the rotting of the fruit upon the trees must be 

 kept up until the fruit is nearly ripe. 



At this season we sometimes find plum trees that have too many 

 plums on them to produce the best of fruit. It is a tedious job to 

 thin them sufficiently by hand, and but few of us will take that 

 trouble. We sometimes take a short handled sharp axe and with it 

 trim the trees until we think there is about the right quantity of 

 fruit left upon the trees. July we believe tot be a better month to 

 do this trimming than August, but considerable benefit is to be 

 derived from trimming the fruit upon overloaded trees even when 

 the fruit is nearly ripe. This trimming the trees to thin the fruit 

 is also a benefit to the tree itself in that it leaves the tree trimmed 

 for the next season's crop. Most of our plum trees have too much 

 brush upon them any way. 



I have said nothing about fighting or destroying the plum cur- 

 culio, as the months of May and June are the best months to do that 

 work. But we can jar the trees so that the worst stung plums will 

 drop to the ground, from where they should be gathered up and 

 fed to the pigs or otherwise destroyed. Or it would be better still 

 if we could turn some pigs loose in the plum orchard. They would 

 very soon make way with any plums that are upon the ground. 



In the writer's plum orchard we have had for many years more 

 or less of rotting of the fruit all through the growing season, and 

 we have tried to reduce the rot by knocking the rotten plums off 

 from the trees with a long stick. But I believe that method to be 



