THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 119 



possible without freezing until the time arrives for setting in nursery. 

 The roots may be placed in damp sand, but the scions sliould be sub- 

 jected to such a degree of moisture only as will prevent drying out. 

 The practice as here outlined is successfully followed in our station 

 work. In all grafting of plums, the scion should be set low on the 

 crown, so that when planted in the nursery the union may be placed 

 well below the surface. 



The plum is seldom worked above the ground, and there seems to 

 be nothing in the practice to commend it for practical purposes. If 

 it is attempted, it should only be with varieties of close affinity, and 

 trees of equal vigor. Scions from a slow growing tree cannot keep 

 pace with the branches of a strong grower, and if the strong scion is 

 worked on the slower stock it soon outgrows it and the wind breaks 

 it off. A scion of Indiana Red worked on a wild americana stock 

 three feet above the ground produced a straight whip five feet and 

 four inches long ; three feet above the union the new growth had the 

 same diameter as the stock at the ground. It yielded to a moderate 

 wind. Sometimes, when new varieties are procured for trial, a few 

 scions are worked on old trees of some americana variety, with a 

 view to obtaining fruit quickly. Thus, trees of Ogon, planted in 1894, 

 have not yet fruited, because the tops have killed back every year, 

 but scions from the same trees, taken at the time of planting and 

 worked on americana, have given us fruit for four seasons. Several 

 other varieties treated in the same manner at the same time have 

 fruited, but all, or nearly all, are now dead. 



PRUNING. 



Plums are pruned for the purpose of forming and maintaining a 

 symmetrical, well-balanced top. Five or six branches, equally distrib- 

 uted about the stem and having some vertical separation, are selected 

 to serve as a framework of the top. All others are removed and the 

 leader is shortened. The branches retained should be cut back to 

 some extent, but this, as well as the shortening of the leader, must be 

 determined for each tree, being dependent upon the root system and 

 the apparent vigor. In shortening the branches and leader, the cuts 

 should be made with reference to selected buds so placed that the fu- 

 ture extension may be in the right direction. During the summer 

 rub ofP shoots that start where they are not wanted, and pinch the tips 

 of rampant branches. The second spring, before growth starts, the 

 shoots produced the previous year should be shortened to encourage 

 the production of secondary, interior branches, and the third year this 

 is repeated. From now on no pruning is needed, except to remove 

 branches starting from wrong places and to control the too vigorous 

 branches. This is best done by summer pinching, and, in general, it 



