94 THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 



of 500 to 1000 pounds per acre annually. The fundamental laws of 

 systematic or scientific horticulture are based on proper food ration. 

 The best soil for plums is a heavy clay, underlaid with a gravelly sub- 

 soil, callable of conserving moisture. The color of the top soil needs 

 little consideration in selecting a proper location for planting — more 

 depending upon the proper chemical analysis of the soil, combined 

 with complete drainage. Hillsides, points, and ridges — other advan- 

 tages being favorable — make good locations for plum orchards ; such 

 locations are numerous in this state. We, as citizens of this great 

 state of Missouri, know no limit or scarcely any bounds to the cul- 

 tivation of the better and more profitable varieties of plums. "Of all 

 the important fruits, the common plum has the smallest American 

 literature," says Professor Bailey. This is as much as to say that the 

 culture of the plum, of all fruits, is most neglected, and what is true 

 in this case in the Eastern states is also a fact in Missouri.* Then 

 our fruit-growers should wheel into line with their best and most direct 

 financial interests and plant more good plums, which make a quick 

 return in profit and greatly assist in bridging over the expense of 

 planting and growing other fruits that take longer to produce a crop. 

 Progressive horticulture, toned with experience, polished by science, 

 the products reaped with the golden sickle of success, stored in the 

 broad, liberal minds of the intelligent grower, the joy and pleasure 

 divided with the family and subdivided with friends and acquaint- 

 ances, is the theme sought for. . . . 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE SEXUAL AFFINITIES OF 

 PRUJSfUS AMERICANA. 



By C. W. H. HEIDEMA.N. Read before the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences. 

 THE PROBLEM. 



The uncertainty of tha regular annual fruiting of jDlums in the 

 Northwest, where only the native Primus americana, in its many 

 varieties, has been found suSiciently hardy to endure the climatic 

 conditions, has long been a difficult problem in horticulture. Writers 

 on the subject of plum culture have attributed as the cause of the 

 more or less non-productiveness "the influences of domestication and 

 consequent high culture," "self-sterility," etc. The beneficial effect 

 of cross-fertilization has been hinted at and proposed as the remedy 

 for all cases of infecundity. Mixed and close planting of the varie- 

 ties to better insure cross-fertilization has been suggested by nearly 

 all of them. Reports of various horticultural societies are filled with 



* We think this applies to Kansas as well. — Sec. 



