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THE BEST METHOD OF PROPAGATING PLUMS. 179 
evidently off the right track, we turned about and came in, as we 
thought, on the main line, in our next experiment. In the fall, when 
the time arrived for digging our seedlings, instead of packing them 
in the cellar, we prepared the ground and planted them where we 
expected to grow our plums, planting them in rows three 
and one-halfjfeet apart and ten inches apart in the row. 
The following ispring and early summer, we kept these 
m seedlings thoroughly free from weeds by hoeing and cultivating, 
and ~ by July 20th we had a very nice stand of seedlings, which 
ny: we then budded, principally with Weaver, Desota, Forest Garden, 
is Wolf, Hawkeye, Rollingstone and Cheney; but as the weather 
% was very hot and dry when we did our budding, we did not get 
more than seventy per cent. to catch, and in the following spring 
i. we found]many buds that the fall before appeared to be all right 
i had died during the winter. This reduced the number of live trees 
aa from this budding to about fifty-seven per cent. These, however, 
i” started immediately and made a very good growth, some of the 
i young trees reaching a height of four to five feet at the close of 
‘3 the first season, and when ready for market they were straight, well 
a branched and fine looking trees; and we realized that budding 
plum trees was a great improvement over the old way of grafting. 
When digging these trees, however, we noticed that some of the 
oa varieties:had made a very poor union, so poor, in fact, that in the 
process of;tying them in bundles some of them broke in two at the 
point where they had been budded. 
The demand for native plum trees was continually increasing, as 
our customers gradually learned that this was one of the most 
Fy profitable fruits for our state, but the difficulties we had encoun- 
J tered in our propagation so far forced us to look about for some 
; other and more successful way of growing these trees. 
q In our next trial we sowed the seed very thickly, and by so doing 
ee obtained a thrifty lot of rather slender seedlings. In the fall, we 
a transplanted,these in the same manner as we had done for budding, 
but instead of budding them, we grew them that summer, and in 
i), the following spring, as soon as the ground could be worked, we 
ve removed the soil from around the seedlings to the depth of about 
two inches. We had cut our scions in the spring, and we now . 
Mw grafted them‘on these roots just as low as we conveniently could, 
and after applying the wax turned the soil back again, thus cover- 
a - ing the union and part of the scion with earth, leaving one or two 
‘buds above the surface—and itis really a delight to the grower to 
see how grafts set in this way will start. Bythis method we have 
few sprouts to fight, and by covering the scion (or nearly so) we 
have but little pruning to do,and above all we secure a perfect 
union, and, instead of the crooks found on a budded stock, we have 
a straight, clean,smooth and vigorous tree, well worth the labor 
that has been’ bestowed upon it. 
In conclusion’ I would say, in propagating plums, either for 
private orj commercial purposes, always remember three things: 
first, use none but native roots; second, cut your scions in the 
spring; and, third, graft on a stock that is already established in 
the ground. 
