THE PLUM IN KANSAS. G9 



bearer of any native sort, but the tree is a poor grower, but it is probable our soil 

 is not adapted to it. Marianna sometimes bears a full crop of small, fjoor- flavored 

 plums; it is a rampant grower, but short lived, and is troubled with borers. 

 Weaver is a very good plum, but shy bearer. Saratoga fruits for first time this 

 year, and promises well at this time ; we have several others, but as they are so 

 unprofitable we take no pains to keep up with their names. Of the Japan 

 varieties. Abundance has paid us; fruit large, but must be picked before it 

 colors, as it rots badly : is ripe when a faint blush appears on it, and is far superior 

 to any native plvim for canning, preserving, etc. Burbank rots much worse than 

 Abundance, and the fruit is of poor flavor. Plum trees generally were much 

 damaged by the cold of February, 1899, and we think most trees will soon die, 



F. L. Osborne, Soldier, Jackson county. I have eight plum trees in bear- 

 ing, planted five years ago. They are Wild Goose and Marianna ; the latter bears 

 best for me. My soil is a black loam with a northern slope. Plant trees fifteen 

 feet apart. Have never grown, budded or grafted my own trees. My neighbors 

 grow plums on a small scale. 



J. AV. Williams, Holton, Jackson county. I have five plum trees in bear- 

 ing, planted from two to ten years, four of which are Blue Damson, and one Jap- 

 anese planted two years ago. It has plums on this year and they are fine. The 

 Blue Damson does best for me. My soil is upland prairie, underlaid with hard- 

 pan, sloping towards the southwest. I plant from twenty-five to thirty feet apart. 

 Never sell in the market. Have tried several wild varieties ; only one ever fruited, 

 but it sprouted so badly I dug them all up. Have never grafted or budded my 

 own trees. Some of my neighbors grow plums successfully. 



H. S. Cutter, South Cedar, Jackson county. In the spring of 1889 I set 

 out sixty plum trees of the following varieties: Thirty-five Wild Goose, ten Pot- 

 tawatomie, five Lombard, five Pruinis !<imonU. The ground was plowed in the 

 fall of 1888, and the trees set in the spring of 1889, sixteen feet apart each way. 

 Holes were dug for the trees just large enough and deep enough to set them in 

 about the same depth they had grown in the nursery. The trees were "plum 

 on plum," as the nurseries style it, and I find them more durable than tliose 

 grafted on peach roots, as they are not so liable to be broken off by the wind. 

 The plum on peach grows so vigorously that they are very brittle, and in a 

 high wind are apt to break off just above the ground. I lost about one-half 

 of one plum orchard in that way, while of those grafted on plum roots not one 

 was blown off. The first crop of fruit gathered from the plum orchard set in 

 1889 was in 1894. The trees were white with bloom in the spring of 1893, but 

 they did not set any fruit until 1894, when a fair crop was gathered from the 

 Wild Goose, Lombard, and Pottawatomie. These three varieties have born 

 crops of fruit every year since. During the year 1897 they yielded the finest lot 

 of fruit I ever beheld. From two of the finest Wild Goose trees we picked 

 twelve bushels of fine fruit. The fruit was picked and sold in the common half 

 bushel baskets. The first picking brought one dollar per basket, later seventy- 

 five cents, and the last sixty-five cents a basket. Of the above three varieties, 

 the Wild Goose stands first in productiveness and market value, Lombard sec- 

 ond, and Pottawatomie third. Of the other varieties, the Priiniis slmonii never 

 bore a plum, and the trees are now all dead. Kelsey's Japan has born a very 

 few plums, and the trees are nearly all dead. I intend to set out several plum 

 trees this spring, and they will be "plum on plum" — Wild Goose, Lombard, and 

 Damson. I have seen the Blue Damson bearing heavy crops of choice fruit in 

 this county, and I will try what they will do for me. I never sprayed the trees. 



