THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 67 



fruit-growers. Among them are the best improved kinds for dried prunes from 

 the Pacific; so much better than the old foreign kinds; a result of crossing. The 

 Abundance and Burbank are the best known of that large and new class; their 

 large size, great productiveness, bright color and good quality make them a fa- 

 vorite with the public. 



A few words as to culture. They can be planted closely in the back yard, 

 where the soil is packed firmly, and in jjlaces where the poultry have free range 

 to destroy the insects. The trees can be jarred after the blossoms fall, to let the 

 insects, the curculio, drop on a sheet, which should be previously spread under 

 the tree; then they can be destroyed. In doing this you not only destroy them, 

 but their [prospective] increase, and if persevered in you will capture all in a few 

 efforts. This applies more to how they are grown than how they ought to be. 

 Where they are grown extensively they should receive good culture and correct 

 care. These lines are not to instruct such cultivators, as they are able to give us 

 pointers on that topic. But plums can be grown, of the best American and 

 Japan kinds and their hybrids, in a paying way in all this Mississippi valley. In 

 favored localities some of the European kinds do well. Every one with even a 

 small lot can have a few trees of select kinds and enjoy the blessings of this choice 

 fruit, with many chances for yet better kinds in the future. As a help to deter- 

 mine the classes, I will give a list of the more prominent kinds of each, beginning 

 with the oldest in our cultivation. 



Domesticas. — Lombard (cling and free), Damson, Red and Yellow Gage, Red 

 and Yellow Egg, Quakenboss, General Hand, Washington, Coe's Golden Drop, 

 Felleuburg, Niagara, Moore's Arctic, German or French Prunes. These are the 

 leading kinds grown East and West. 



Americans. — Wild Goose, Miner, Pottawatomie, Newman, Caddo Chief, Stod- 

 dard, Whitaker, Hawkeye, and Forest Garden. These are familiar kinds in cul- 

 tivation in the Mississippi valley. 



Japans.— Abundance, Burbank, Kelsey, Satsuma, Botan, Red June, Red 

 Negate, Chabot, and Norman. These are the best known Japans. 



Hybrids. — Wickson, Climax, Gold,Gonzales, America, Apple, Bartlett, Chalco, 

 Juicy, Ruby and Shiro are some of this interesting class. 



This divides them into but four groups, which is enough for our considera- 

 tion. The hybrids are mostly from Luther Burbank, of California, but there are 

 also some from Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, and other states ; so the possi- 

 bility of growing acclimated kinds here is within our reach and privilege. Hy- 

 bridizing is largely done by natural process ; when trees of two races are planted 

 near each other, nature, by insects or wind, carries the pollen from one to the 

 other, and from the resultant seed is possible the new kind you are looking for, 

 to make plum culture in this valley, and elsewhere, a success. Of course there 

 is a way of transferring the pollen by hand, but it requires patience, skill, and 

 perseverance, while in the former way it is done just as well and effectually. 



J. W. Somer, Wilson, Ellsworth county. I have several plum trees in 

 bearing, planted five years. The varieties are Wild Goose and Marianna. The 

 Wild Goose is the best bearer. My soil is a loamy clay, with a northwest aspect. 

 I plant eight feet apart. If I were doing it all over again, I would plant the two 

 varieties mentioned above, and would plant the Wild Goose in clusters. Plums 

 have not received much attention in this county, but I believe, if they did, they 

 would be a paying crop. 



William Cutter, Junction City, Geary county. There is no fruit-tree 

 that is so universally neglected as the plum, and the fact that poultry will de- 



