plums. 459 



What to plant : I may not agree with some of the old horticul- 

 turists, but my list will consist of such varieties as have done well 

 for me. 



(Early) Cheney, Gaylord; (late) De Soto, Rollingstone, Ochee- 

 da, Miner. 



I omitted the Aitkin. It has not fruited for me, so I do not know 

 much about the tree or its fruit. 



The first two or three years plant potatoes between the rows, and 

 when you cultivate your potatoes you will not forget your plum trees. 

 Weeds and grass must be kept away from them. Mulch in the win- 

 ter, and when a tree commences to bear fruit keep it mulched in the 

 summer too. 



If you have no other way of getting a plum orchard buy some 

 plums and plant the pits, De Soto or Miner, if they can be had. In a 

 few years you will have plums and some pretty good ones too, al- 

 though many of them may not be large enough for market. 



My Plum Orchard: In 1894 I bought four quarts of De Soto 

 plums and planted the pits. I got nearly a hundred trees. Many 

 of them I have grafted to named varieties. I have now thirty of the 

 seedlings bearing fruit, some of the fruit being excellent: — (1) es- 

 pecially a yellow plum of good size and very early, and I think might 

 be worthy a name 5(2) also a yellow plum of good quality but smaller 

 and later; (3) and a large red plum, but not so good, to my taste at 

 least. In 1895 I bought from Harris the La Crescent, Cheney, Rol- 

 lingstone and De Soto. I have since acquired by purchase and by 

 gifts of scions from Hawkins and Kimball twenty-eight named varie- 

 ties, among them three European varieties. One of the European 

 may be of some value here. 



In 1898 my orchard commenced bearing, but the fruit turned 

 black. In 1899 it was the same. I did not get a peck of plums that 

 were fit to eat. In 1900 I bought a "sprayer" and sprayed with 

 Bordeaux mixture and got a good crop. In 1901 I sprayed again 

 with the same, and if it had not been so dry I would have had twenty 

 bushels of plums. I had about fifty trees bearing this year and shall 

 probably have about sixty or more next year. 



I have two trees I dug up along Rose Creek. One bears a yellow 

 and the other a light red plum ; both very early, good size and very 

 good. 



The trees best standing the drought this year (1901) were the, 

 Gaylord, Cheney, Rollingstone, Miner, Davis, Damson and trees of 

 my De Soto seedling, also the two trees I dug up along the creek. 



