MY EXPERIENCE WITH PLUMS. 167 



either the Stoddard or Hawkeye, as good as either, darker in color, 

 hardy, productive and a good market plum. 



There has been great progress made in fruit growing in the 

 northwest in the last ten years, the most noticeable progress being 

 made in the apple. At the last winter meeting of our association I 

 saw many fine seedlings, large, good in quality and late keepers. At 

 the last state fair there were over 3,000 plates of apples and 850 

 plates of plums. In the plum list there seems to be something over 

 two hundred varieties, many of which are too small to be of any 

 value and no good, consequently, for market. There is no use in 

 such a long list, and the smaller and less valuable varieties should be 

 destroyed root and branch. 



In my opinion a farmer should not attempt too much in the way 

 of plum growing but should content himself with the selection of 

 from six to eight good varieties and give them the culture they 

 need. I would recommend as a starter the following: for early 

 plums, the Cheney, Aitken, Odegaard ; for medium, Surprise, Wyant : 

 for late plums, Stoddard, De Soto, Comfort. The best four plums 

 for market, the plums that bring the most money, are the Surprise, 

 Wyant, Stoddard and De Soto. These four are reliable bearers, 

 quite large and some of the best market plums. These four are my 

 peeling plums, and for this purpose the fruit should be colored up 

 finely but should not be soft. After peeling plums should be thrown 

 into water to keep them fresh in color. Peeled plums are very fine, 

 in my opinion fully as fine as the very finest peach. For plum butter 

 I would recommend the New Ulm, Cheney and RolHngstone. For 

 canning purposes with the peel on I like the Surprise, and Wyant. 



Last summer I sold 146 bushels of plums from my orchard, 

 over one-half of them being for peeling. The demand in the mar- 

 ket is for plums of uniform size, large and well colored. 



I would recommend that plums be planted in rows, north and 

 south. The rows should be about twelve feet apart with six- 

 teen feet between. We must have room to drive in the orchard 

 in order to spread manure. A plum orchard in bearing should 

 have a dressing of manure every fall. I prefer well-rotted 

 barnyard manure. I also find it essential to mulch plum trees in the 

 fall as well as apple trees. For this purpose I use barnyard manure 

 and then in the spring I spread this mulch and cultivate it in. I pre- 

 fer clean cultivation for the phmi orchard. I also cultivate after 

 each rain as soon as the ground is dry enough to do good work. 

 This keeps the moisture in the ground, prevents evaporation and kills 

 the weeds at the same time. 



