THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 49 



RESULTS IN CANADA. 



The practicability of thinning fruit, and its feasibility from a commercial 

 standpoint, have been pretty well demonstrated in the last few years. In western 

 New York, it has generally proved profitable wherever tried. Mr. John Craig re- 

 ports, in the publications of the Canadian Central experiment farm, some results 

 in thinning peaches and plums which corroborate the notes given from Mr. Beach 

 and others. He concludes that, when a large crop is set, thinning peaches is 

 highly remunerative, for the following reasons: (1) It increases the weight of the 

 yield. (2) It largely increases the size of the fruit. (3) It reduces the number 

 of matured seeds, thereby considerably lessening the drain on the vitality of 

 the tree. (4) It renders the crop less liable to rot. Thinning plums likewise 

 proved altogether worth while. — Country Oentleman. 



VALUE OF THINNING PLUMS ON TREES. 



In September, in one of the best plum-growing sections, I saw an orchard of 

 400 trees, each of which yielded ten baskets of Lombard plums, or 4000 baskets 

 in all, which sold at twenty-five cents, making a gross return of $1000 for these 

 400 trees. I saw another orchard, not five miles away, that carried probably as 

 large a number of baskets, but I am sure they would not realize more than fifty 

 per cent, of the gross return of the first. The high prices scored by the first lot 

 may be attributed to the fact that they were thinned, and the second was not. 

 The Lombard is one of those trees which will kill itself by overbearing if it is not 

 thinned. The fruit will, under these conditions, become small and very poorly 

 colored, so that the smaller price for the largest number of baskets will not equal 

 in gross return that secured from the smaller quantity of better quality obtained 

 by thinning. Some varieties of American plums are very prolific; if allowed to 

 bear to their full extent will in a few years destroy themselves. In the case of 

 the Weaver plum, two trees which were not thinned for three years died at the 

 end of that period, and two other trees, which were thinned each year, are in 

 good health and give fair returns each year. It is, therefore, not only possible 

 by thinning to increase the quality of the fruit, but to keep your trees in health. 

 — From a Quebec Pomologiccd Society Report. 



GKAFTING THE PLUM AND CHERRY. 



By Peof. N. E. Hansen, Ames, Iowa, in Nebraska Horticultural Society report. 



Root-grafting of the cherry and plum in the house during winter 

 is considered difficult by many, but it has been practiced at the Iowa 

 Agricultural College, at Ames, every winter for many years, with good 

 success. For plums, one-year seedlings of our native northern plum, 

 Prunus americana, are used, which are grown from pits of the best 

 cultivated varieties of the same species, such as Wyant, De Soto, and 

 Wolf. Seedlings should not be grown from seeds gathered indis- 

 criminately in the woods, but only from trees growing good-sized 

 fruit. It has been found such seedlings are better and more uniform, 

 and there is less liability to injurious influence of stock on scion. In 

 the last two or three winters we have also used Marianna stocks, grown 

 —4 



