KOADSIUK TREES. 453 



On a recent visit to a New England town there was great ex- 

 citement because a road-master had mowed down all of the "brush" 

 on the borders of the drive, an indignation meeting was held, and 

 the offending officer was severely reprimanded. 



We are rapidly learning to "lift our eyes" above the mere rou- 

 tine of animal necessities and to see more of the beautiful objects 

 which surround us. Where can one find more natural beauty than 

 in the country? And beauty needs no other excuse than its own 

 and, as I have endeavored to demonstrate, farm-forestry, beauty, 

 utility and common sense join in an appeal for an advanced place 

 in the program of our daily lives. 



PROPAGATION AND CULTIVATION OF OUR NATIVE 



PLUMS. 



O. W. MOORE^ SPRING VALLEY. 



I have experimented somewhat in the propagation of plums, and 

 the best method that I have found is to plant pits. I have tried 

 budding the seedlings from those pits the first season, sometime in 

 August, but I do not recommend it, for the reason that the seedHngs 

 have not attained sufficient size to be budded with success at that age. 

 A seedling much less than three-eighths of an inch in diameter is 

 too small for budding purposes, and very few seedlings grow to that 

 size in time for budding the first season after planting the pits. 



In order to bud with success we have to wait for the second 

 summer's growth of the seedling, but we can gain a year over this 

 method by crown-grafting the seedling the following spring after 

 planting the pits, with just as good or better results. I have grown 

 buds that were put in the first year by the side of grafts that were put 

 in the following spring, and the grafts made a better growth than the 

 buds. I have had the best success in crown-grafting to leave the 

 seedling intact until the scion is well started, when I cut the seedling 

 back to about six inches above the scion, which serves as a support 

 to tie the young growth from the scion to in case of heavy winds, 

 when they are liable to be broken off. 



In top-working the plum, I prefer to cut off of the upper limbs 

 that I wish to graft at the same time, leaving the lower branches 

 that I do not care to graft until the scions make a good growth, when 

 I cut off all under branches close to the tree. I gave a few trees 

 the above treatment the past season with good results. All of the 

 foliage that they carried the latter part of the season was produced 

 from the growth of the scions. I have been told that it is not well 



