66 THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 



toward the east. I plant twelve feet apart. Usually get one dollar per bushel; 

 last year buyers gathered them themselves. I have never grown, grafted or bud- 

 ded my own trees. If I had it to do all over again, I would plant the same as I 

 have now and the Wild Goose and Marianna. My neighbors do not grow plums. 

 I consider them a good paying crop in this locality. 



A. H. Griesa, Lawrence, Douglas county. The plum for the whole Mis- 

 sissippi Valley is one of the minor fruits of commerce, but comparatively few 

 kinds are successfully grown there, while in most of Europe it is of large im- 

 portance; besides for home consumption, it is largely grown for export and dry- 

 ing. The varieties there are the domestica or European type. Most all the 

 kinds there grown are the same as have been for many years. In the eastern and 

 northern parts of the United States it is grown to a considerable extent. But 

 the greatest success lies to the west of us. West of a line drawn north and 

 south near Hutchinson, Kan., you may begin the planting of any of the do- 

 vieHtica class with reasonable hope of success ; as you proceed to the higher and 

 dry regions of the valley success is sure every year. I have never seen better 

 plums grow in any place than in Garden City, Kan. They are comparatively 

 near the markets and have the climate to dry them the same as in Arizona and 

 California. This may lead some one to ask, Why can they be grown there and 

 not east? The trees grow in both sections, blossom, and set fruit, but in the east 

 it rots, caused by a fungus disease that seems to develop best in the hot and 

 moist climate of the Mississippi valley, and does not develop at all in the higher 

 and dryer regions of the western half of this state and the country beyond, nor 

 in the high lands of Texas, where plums are now largely grown. 



The trees are hardy and well adapted to most any part of the country; they 

 will blossom and set fruit, but during the hot, moist days of the summer, before 

 they ripen, this fungus destroys them. Most of the European kinds are not suited 

 to this great valley: only the Damson and Lombard seem to be fairly reliable. 

 Here our main reliance should be on the American and Japan kinds. The best 

 varieties of these classes are often grown anywhere in a small way to a good 

 profit. The American kinds are the most hardy in tree for this region. Of these, 

 the Wild Goose is the standard, and, with the Pottawatomie, Stoddard, Whitta- 

 ker, and many others, are the more largely grown. These kinds are not regular 

 bearers; the seasons, insects and other causes prevent or make the crop. The 

 trees are not often planted for orchards, but are more generally grown in the yard, 

 fence corners, or chicken lots, and the product is as so much gain for the family 

 use, or market, if in surplus. No fruit will retain the natural flavor better than 

 the plum when canned; its richest qualities are then brought forth; for this 

 reason it is advisable that every man with room enough should plant at least one 

 plum tree as a duty to his family. The trees are very productive, with a great 

 limit in season of ripening. Before this nation began the expansion policy the 

 horticulturists began to expand, and brought new types of fruit from the ends of 

 the earth, as from Russia, China, Japan, Persia, and other countries. Apropos 

 to this, we had great things in plums from Japan, China, and Turkey; not that 

 the kinds from there seemed adapted to our wants alone, but those kinds seemed 

 especially good as a parent, with our more hardy native sorts, to produce a race 

 of cross-breeds or hybrids that promise more than we as yet have recognized pos- 

 sible. 



The Prunua simonii, from Turkey and Persia, is of no value to the Missis- 

 sippi valley, but is one of the parents of several promising kinds. So many of 

 the pwre Japans, with unspeakable names, have [caused] more new crosses or 

 hybrids than all those imported, not one-fourth of which are yet known among 



