THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 47 



SOME NOTES ON POLLINATION. 



Col. T. W. Harrison, of Topeka, set out carefully, some years ago, 

 an orchard of choice plum trees. When they came into bearing, he 

 found near the center of them a tree of the sloe — said to be the orig- 

 inal plum. At blossoming time this sloe was always a perfect bou- 

 quet. It was a vigorous, well-grown tree at all times, and the plum 

 grove bore splendid crops. As the trees became older they began to 

 crowd, and the colonel concluded that it was necessary to thin them 

 out. The sloe seemed to take up more room than any other, and the 

 fruit was very small and i^ractically worthless, so he naturally grubbed 

 it out first and dragged it to the wood-pile, and he declares that the 

 entire orchard never in any one year thereafter yielded as much as a 

 peck of plums. Do not get sentimental and imagine the trees were 

 in mourning for their fallen consort; they simply could not bear 

 without the potent pollen of the vigorous sloe. Thus the apparently 

 profitless sloe was as valuable as all the others together. Twentieth 

 century science and horticultural education will teach us how to 

 propagate, how to plant along sure lines, whereby we can literally 

 "count our chickens [fruits] before they are hatched." — Secretary. 



FERTILIZING BARREN PLUM TREES. 



Mr. J. L. Irwin, a Kansas fruit-grower, says that an uncle of his "had a clump 

 of plum trees which were, to all appearances, healthy, mature trees. They blos- 

 somed freely each spring, but never had fruit, until upon investigation it was 

 found that the blossoms lacked fertilizing pollen. As an experiment, a wild plum 

 tree that was just in blossom was cut and brought to the orchard, where it was 

 set up in a barrel of water in the midst of the heretofore barren trees. The ex- 

 periment resulted in an abundance of fruit. The wild tree furnished the fertiliz- 

 ing pollen which the other trees did not supply." 



PLUMS THAT BLOOM BUT DO NOT BEAR. 



Plum growers in many localities, and under widely varying circumstances, 

 have found that a heavy showing of blossoms is sometimes strangely followed 

 by no plums at all. In many cases where all other conditions have seemed to be 

 favorable, this has been thought to be due to the self-sterility of the blossoms 

 and the lack of cross-pollination. Repeated experiments made by the Vermont 

 station and by various plum growers, and a great number of field observations, 

 have shown that this is indeed the fact, and that plums are often quite incapable 

 of developing any fruit unless the blossoms are cross-pollinated. Mixed plant- 

 ing and intergrafting are the remedies for this difficulty. — Montana Fru t 

 O rower. 



STERILE BLOSSOMING PLUMS. 



I notice in the New York Tribune, September 13 [1899], that the agricultural 

 department claims that all plums except Robinson have sterile blossoms; also 

 that the different varieties bloom in the same order everywhere, though the time 



